Introduction




PDFtoMusic is a groundbreaking and unique program that converts Adobe PDF music sheets into editable music scores.
From an Adobe PDF file created by any music notation program, PDFtoMusic can play the piece, sing the lyrics and export this piece to miscellaneous file formats: MIDI, Myr, BMP, WAV, AIFF and MusicXML  for the Pro version.

What can I use it for?
How does PDFtoMusic work?
What are the differences between the "Pro" and "Standard" version?

What can I use it for?

Usages for PDFtoMusic are numerous. First, on the Internet, many dedicated sites provide large collections of free musical PDF files.
PDFtoMusic will let you play them, or convert them into a music file format that you'll be able to modify by using your usual music notation software.
Thus, PDFtoMusic gives you access to a wide library of public domain score sheets that you can play or edit.

Also, there are many music notation programs, and only a few manage compatible exchange file formats. PDFtoMusic solves this issue. You just have, from your program, to generate a PDF file (see next chapter), read it with PDFtoMusic and convert it into format that can be read by another application, for instance, Myr or MIDI format (or MusicXML for the Pro version).

PDFtoMusic becomes then a bridge between your miscellaneous music programs.

For instance: your choir master only uses "Music Architect 2000", that can only save files in its own, proprietary format. You just have to ask him for a PDF file for the score, and by using PDFtoMusic, you'll get a score that can be edited in Harmony Assistant.

If you own the Pro version of PDFtoMusic, you can also export into MusicXML exchange format, from Recordare.  The Music XML file format is currently supported by a number of notation applications, including Finale and Sibelius.

How does PDFtoMusic work?

PDFtoMusic analyzes the content of Adobe PDF files. It collects all the graphical information that it can process: fonts, lines, miscellaneous graphic objects. From these graphical items, PDFtoMusic will infer the music score to be played.

Note : some PDF files (albeit rare) embed only a single picture for the whole score, instead of  a collection of simple graphic objects. This kind of PDF file has probably been generated from a scanned paper sheet. PDFtoMusic can't extract and process elementary graphical items in such cases, and reports that such a document cannot be processed.

To convert a PDF file, select "File>Open" in PDFtoMusic and select a PDF file on your hard drive. PDFtoMusic will load it, and start automatically to process and display it.
If PDFtoMusic makes a mistake while processing the document, you will be able to fix this mistake manually. It is described in the corrections section of this manual.

PDFtoMusic can export the result automatically each time a PDF file is processed, and open this result in the program of your choice.


What are the differences between the "Pro" and "Standard" version?

The "Pro version" includes options and features that are not present in the "Standard" version:

- Batch file export, to convert in only one operation all PDF files from a folder and its subfolders.
- "Expert" mode to manually override individual default processing settings in order to have more precise control.
- Export in MusicXML format in order to preserve the score sheet layout when importing into one of the numerous programs that support this format.



How do I generate a PDF file from any software?


PDFtoMusic is able to convert a PDF document with such a high level of accuracy because it analyses the actual font characters which are embedded in the PDF document. 

When asking for generating a PDF document, you must ask for the character fonts to be embedded into the PDF document. Generally, it's the default setting.

If PDFtoMusic detects a font that is not embedded in the document, an alert will be displayed:



meaning that the rendering could be different from expected.

Here is how to create a PDF file, depending on your system kind:


With Windows

  With Mac OS X

  With Mac OS 9

  With Linux

With Windows



To create PDF files from any music software (or any other application) under Windows, you must install a small program beforehand.
This program can be either a freeware, like DoPDF, PrimoPDF, PDFCreator, a shareware, like  PDF995, or a commercial software package like the tools of the Adobe suite.

Note : Be careful, some freeware programs likePDFCreator  CutePDF ou Bullzip PDF Printer install unwanted adware toolbars in your Web browser. It's highly recommended to disable installation of these toolbars when possible, or to use any other adware-free alternative.

All these programs behave like a new printer for your computer.
When "printing" a document to it, a file name is asked, and the printing result is actually saved in PDF format.

When printing from any program, you will then find a new entry in the printer selector that appears:



Select the printer (here "PDFCreator) then click "Print".
You'll then get a window for entering optional information about the PDF file to be created (Title, date, author...), then a file selector for specifying the name and location of this file.

The PDF file that matches what you asked for being printed is then generated, and can be opened by PDFtoMusic.

You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.



 
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With Mac OS X



With a Macintosh under Mac OS X, it's quite easy to generate a PDF file from any program, by using the print dialog box. Once the file is loaded into the software, select "File>Print". The printer selector opens, and you can select here the page range to be printed. 
In the bottom part of this box, you'll see a "PDF" or "Save as PDF" button.



Click it, select a name for the file and save it. The Adobe PDF document is created on your hard disk at the required location.

You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.





 
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With Mac OS 9



To create PDF files from any music software under Mac OS 9, you must install a small program beforehand in the system "Extensions folder", like Acrobat PDFWriter or PrintToPdf.

Select the Chooser from the Apple menu, and click on the program icon:



Then close the Chooser. (The AppleTalk setting is irrelevant in this case.)

All these programs behave like a new printer for your computer.
When "printing" a document to it, enter a file name, and the printing result is actually saved in PDF format.

A PDF file of your score is then generated which can be opened by PDFtoMusic.

You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.


 
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With Linux



Generating a PDF file from any program under Linux needs to use a special printer driver that saves the graphic commands into a file instead of actually printing them on paper.

You can then either send this file by e-mail to somebody else, or process it with PDFtoMusic to convert it into the file format you need.

With KDE, the "kprinter" command (KDEPrint package) includes an option to generate a PDF file:



If this option is not included in your distribution, you'll probably need to use cups-pdf.
To install it under Ubuntu, please refer to this document:
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/03/23/print-to-pdf-using-cups-pdf/
To install it under another distribution, please read:
http://www.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~vrbehr/cups-pdf/download.shtml

General application menu


The General application menu is called "PDFtoMusic" on the Macintosh, and "?" on the PC.

About...

Display information about PDFtoMusic: its version and the sound database currently used for playing music. You'll also see whether the program is registered or if you are using a trial version.
For any question about PDFtoMusic, please provide this information to technical support along with your questions about PDFtoMusic.

Documentation

Opens this manual.

Internet

Go to our Website

Connects to the Myriad website

Go to the discussion forum
This forum is a place where you can discuss with other users, and where the authors of the program regularly weight in. It is designed to host discussion about general topics. For specific issues, it's recommended to send a problem report directly to the authors through the following menu option.

Send us an e-mail
You'll send a report directly to the authors, in order to ask a technical question.

WARNING: please be sure to provide a valid e-mail address, otherwise you won't get an answer from us!
When sending an e-mail to the authors through this option, all the necessary information about your hardware and software us automatically included, so you don't have to repeat them in your message.

It is possible, and even recommended, to attach a file that will illustrate your query.

Search for a score
You will search PDF files on the Internet using Kooplet.


Language

Program language selection. This submenu allows you to select the language of the user interface.


Ordering

You are connected to the our online store, from where you can order our products.

Please consider that the playback quality of PDFtoMusic, as well as the audio file export (WAV, AIFF, MP3) can be drastically improved by using GOLD 2 sound base.


Input my registration code

This option is active only if your copy of the program is not registered yet. To do it, enter your personal details, as well as the personal license number that you received after your purchase. This operation has to be done only once.

Unregister the program

This option is active only if your copy of the program is registered. It wipes out the registration information. You have to do this when you sell your computer, or if you are using a computer other than yours.

Note: this is important, because you are personaly responsible for keeping the information related to your license confidential.

"File" menu


Open

Opens the window for selecting a PDF file from your hard disk. The file will be loaded and analyzed. Icons show the computation progress. You can cancel the operation at any point by either closing the document window, or by hitting the Esc key. You are then asked to confirm the cancellation process.

Open recent file

In this menu, PDFtoMusic shows the 32 last loaded PDF files. The last item in this menu erases this list.



Search the Internet

You will search PDF files on the Internet using Kooplet.

Close

Closes the frontmost document. If you applied changes to the document that have not been saved yet, you are asked for a confirmation.

Save

This submenu is active only if changes have been applied to the frontmost document.
Changes you made to the PDF document are saved, either in the PDF file itself, or in a separate file (depending on your settings in "Settings > Preferences", "Document" section)


Save as

Saves the PDF document under another name, embedding the changes you applied to it.
It enables you, for instance, to save a separate version of the PDF document that includes your amendments, while keeping the original version unaltered.
It is the only way to store your amendments into a PDF file when the setting for "Store Corrections to PDF file" is unchecked in General Document Preferences.
See this chapter for more details.

Properties

Provide various informations about the PDF file : creator, date, embeded fonts, etc.

Open with editor

The frontmost document is exported (in the file format defined in PDFtoMusic preferences) and opened with the related program.

Open PDF file with editor

The PDF file is opened with the editor defined in PDFtoMusic preferences.

Export

Exports the frontmost document in any of the available file formats.
You can select the page(s) to be exported, as well as the parts.
Please refer to the file format description chapter for more information.

Batch process

This option enables you to convert a whole batch of files in a single operation. You just have to select the source folder that contains the PDF files to be processed, and a target folder where the result files will be stored.
- An option enables you to define that generated files will be stored in the source folder.
- A pop-up menu lets you select the export format (Cf "File format" chapter).
- An option enables PDFtoMusic to process also the PDF files stored into subfolders of the source folder.
- Another option prevents PDFtoMusic from processing files which are already present in the target folder.  It is useful when you abort a batch export then wish to resume it without restarting from the beginning.
- An additional option recreates the source folder tree into the targer folder.

You can cancel the operation at any point by either closing the document window, or by hitting the Esc key. You are then asked to confirm the cancellation process.

Partial process


You will define the range of processed pages. This will be applied to all documents, including the batch process.

Printer setup (MacOS only)

Setup for printing : paper size, printer, etc.

Print

The PDF file will be printed.

"Edit" Menu


Undo

When a change (amendment) has been applied to the document, you can undo this operation. The 6 last operations can be undone.

Select all


Select all objects. Any change applied to a selected object will be applied also to the other selected objects.

Deselect all


Deselect all.

Immediate reprocess mode


When this option is active, amendments made to the document will trigger an immediate reprocessing.
When inactive, you'll be able to run manually start reprocessing at your convenience.

Reprocess now


If immediate reprocess mode is switched off and amendments have been made to the document, this option reprocesses the document.

Delete changes on selected objects


Delete changes (amendments) that have been applied to the currently selected music symbols and objects

Delete all changes


Delete all the changes (amendments) that have been applied to music symbols and instruments of the document.

Note: changes about the way fonts are handled are not altered by these two last operations.

"Performance" Menu


Play

Plays the whole score or the currently selected area.

To select a measure: click on the measure.
To extend the selection: shift+click on the measure ending the selection
To delete the selection: click in the selection
To select a part until the end: delete the selection then shift+click on the part and the measure chosen
To select all the parts until the end: delete the selection then shift + double click on the chosen measure

Pause

Stops music performance, that can be restarted at this point later.

Stop

Stops music performance. A new start will play the score from the beginning again.

Volume

Enables to set up the sound overall volume

Tempo

Enables to set up the tempo (performance speed) of the music

Force played measures


You will define the measures to play. This can be single measures like "8,10,11,13,14,6" or group of measures like "2-12" where measure 2 to 12 will be played.
Measure or group of measure currently edited is show on the document.


Loop

While playing allow to repeat the document or the selected area.

Virtual Singer

Enables to decide whether you want the lyrics to be sung by Virtual Singer or played by an instrument.

One semitone up/down (transposition)

Semitone shift for the whole score. This only affects direct playback and doesn't change the generated files. The current value is displayed under the Play icon.

Number of measures before music start


These measures before the music start with the metronome. Metronome state is ignored.

"Display mode" menu


Drawer

This option is active only when the document is longer that one page.
Activates/deactivates the drawer related to the document. The drawer shows the document pages as thumbnails. You can jump to any page by selecting its thumbnail in the drawer.
The number of errors found by PDFtoMusic on this page is also displayed over the thumbnail

Note: you can ask for the drawer to be opened automatically when a new document is loaded, by selecting the matching option in the general preferences, "Document" section.

Scroll mode

When this mode is active, the miscellaneous systems (staff groups) are not displayed on top of each other, like in a real music sheet, by one besides the other, as a virtual "ribbon".

Recognition result

When this mode is active, PDFtoMusic displays the symbols it recognized over the regular PDF drawing. These miscellaneous symbols are displayed in color:

        - notes and rests :         dark blue
        - clef, key and time signature: light blue
        etc.

Measure numbers


Displays measures numbers. If a measure is never played, its number is displayed in grey. This can occur when a repeat symbol is incorrectly written or wrongly analysed. You can fix this by forcing the played measures list in Performance menu.

Horizontal pages


Pages are displayed side by side, by group of two.
This mode can be defined as default in the global settings.

Actual size

Resets the document display scale to 100%

Double size

Resets the document display scale to 200%

Full width 

Adjusts the document display scale so that its width fits the window.

Full page

Adjusts the document window size so that it occupies as many space as possible on screen.

Zoom in

Increases the document display scale.

Zoom out

Decreases the document display scale.

Go to measure...


Shows the measure of the given index.

Page -


Shows previous page

Page +


Shows next page

"Correction" menu


As any other system based on computer recognition, PDFtoMusic is not infallible, and can make some mistakes, more or less impiortant depending on the quality of the document. You can interevene on the recognition result and apply amendments. These changes can be saved so that they are preserved when loading the document again.
PDFtoMusic offers two ways of saving these amendments.

In a general way, when using PDFtoMusic, always start by listening to the result through the "Performance > Play" menu option. If you hear any mistake, this mistake will probably be also present in the exported file. So it's highly recommended to fix it with the available tools, the "Correction" menu being one of them.

If no PDF document is open when you change a setting in this menu, it will apply to all future opened documents, otherwise it will apply to the frontmost document.

In some cases, changing a calculation setting for a document will need its total or partial recomputation.

Instrument

For each staff found in the document, PDFtoMusic shows the related instrument. You can change this instrument as well as its volume, panning position, octave shift and semitone shift.

Through the semitone shift you can specify that an instrument in the score is a transposing instrument. For instance, a staff written for a clarinet is usually notated as a Bb transposing instrument (its semitone offset is -1) and an alto Sax as a Eb transposing instrument (its semitone offset is -9).

If the instrument is human voice, you can specify the language that Virtual Singer will use for singing the lyrics.

A check box activates globally the "surround" effect. This effect increases the panning separation of the miscellaneous instruments, for all the documents.

Staves and systems

When a line is full on page, music notation makes the whole set of staves restart at the next line. Each group of staves that are played together from left to right on page is called a system. There can be several systems on each page.

In order to save space, staves that don't play across a system are frequently not displayed in this system.

This can lead to tricky situations, where it becomes difficult to know which staves are part of the next system, and which staves aren't. For instance, if an instrument doesn't play in a system and is hidden starts to play at the next system, while another instrument stops playing, the number of staves in the two systems can be the same, while the staves aren't. In this case, only the staff name, its clef, or other indicators enable to understand the score structure.

PDFtoMusic includes specific algorithms that "follow" staff lines from a system to another. The "Staves and Systems" mode lets you change the way staff lines are connected together.
A description is provided here.

Areas


In this mode, you can define excluding or including areas.
These areas apply to character or line objects

- If at least one inclusion area is present on the page, all objects located outside any inclusion area are ignored

- Any object located in an exclusion area is ignored

This can be useful, for instance, if a group of characters is not well managed and troubles the recognition.
To add an area, click and drag.
To delete an area, right-click it then select "Delete" in the contextual menu
In the same menu, you can define what page range the area applies to.
Areas are saved along with the amendments made to the document. The "Edit > Delete all changes" menu option therefore also deletes all areas.

Fonts

A PDF document includes graphic objects (frames, lines, etc) as well as characters extracted from a font. Those characters can be either letters and digits, or music symbols.

PDFtoMusic has some manual font recognition settings that can help correct mistakes, which are described here.

Allow multi-voices staves

If PDFtoMusic considers that one or several staves in the document are made of several voices and you are sure of the opposite, you can deactivate this processing mode.


Allow enhanced chords

Two notes horizontally very close to each other can be considered as belonging to the same chord (there are sometimes chords in which the notes are not perfectly aligned). This option enables you to deactivate this mode.

Allow tuplets

In some scores, a digit appears near the note to indicate the fingering. In some cases, PDFtoMusic interprets this fingering text as tuplets (triplets, etc). If there are no tuplets in the piece, deactivate this option to prevent PDFtoMusic from searching for tuplets in the score.

If you deactive this option, PDFtoMusic will no longer search for tuplets in the score.

Allow fingering

If PDFtoMusic recognizes tuplets as fingering notation (this generally provides a bar duration error), you can deactivate fingering seeking for the whole document.

Allow key changes

It can be sometimes difficult to tell accurately whether the accidentals at the start of a bar are a key change, or regular accidentals that has to be applied to the following notes.
For instance:

If PDFtoMusic finds key changes on a document that doesn't include any, deactivate this processing mode.

Allow time signature change


If wrong time signature changes are added inside a measure line, disable this option.

Allow lyrics


If some textual informations, near the staff are recognized as lyrics, and the document don't include lyrics, you can disable them whith this option.

Allow shared lyrics

In some vocal pieces (for instance, Barbershop scores), when several performers sing the same lyrics, only one lyric line is written:



When this mode is active, PDFtoMusic will assign the lyric line to both staves.

Allow clefs vertical shift

Is this mode disabled, clefs vertical position will be ignored

Allow bracket to create groups

Normally, staves groups are notated with braces. Is this mode is active,  bracket also create groups.

Allow left and right hand fusion


Groups of two staves joined by a brace are merged into one part. If not active, this allows you, for example, to export the left hand and the right hand separately.

Allow chords name

In some cases, the lyrics line can be constituted by chords names, for example when the singer sing "La La La La". Invalid this option to ignore chords name processing and add the texts to lyric line and not chord line.

Allow complex typography in chord names


In some case, chord names are written using miscellaneous fonts, size, or vertical shifts.
Activate this option to got a more flexible chord names recognition.

Allow special lines

Some PDF draw note stems with rounded lines :



Some programs draw staff lines using characters mixed with standard lines.

Some programs draw dots using small rounded lines.

When this mode is enabled, these lines will be processed.


Allow thin beams


Some PDF draw beams with thin lines :



When this mode is enabled, these lines will be processed.


Allow automatic break adjustment


Some PDF include several lyric lines related to the staff with incorrect break symbols (repeats, jumps, endings). When this mode is enabled, PDFtoMusic tries to create breaks symbols in order to match the actual number of repeats.


Allow multi-rest


If some numbers below the staff are recognized as multi-rest, you can disable them with this option.

Allow short barlines


In some old notations, barlines are displayed as a small vertical line : 



When this option is on, these lines will be processed as regular, full-length barlines.

Allow ledger lines


Ledger lines are used to determinate note pitches when the symbol is outside the staff lines.
If there is no ledger lines, notes will be lost. In this case disable this option.

Allow tempi


If tempo changes are incorrectly found in your document try to disable this option.

Allow dynamics


If dynamics are incorrectly found in your document try to disable this option.

Allow group names


If group names are incorrectly found in your document try to disable this option.

Allow modern notations


This option is still experimental. It aims to enable specific algorithms to handle special cases.


Processing of time signature located above the staff.


Allow ancient notations (pro version only)


In ancient notation we found accidental below or above note like here :

   

Allow figured bass (pro version only)


In this type of notation, the chords of the bass are written in a simplified way: a note gives the fundamental, numbers and symbols specify inversions and alterations of degrees.

   

Allow grace notes


If little notes are processed as graces, disable this option.

Allow big images


Eliminates images that are too large and can disrupt visualization. By default, all images which are larger than 25% of the page. On PDFtoMusicPRO this threshold is adjustable in the "Images" tab of the expert mode.

Staff matching over systems


With this option, you can change the way the software follows automatically a staff across systems (see "Staves and Systems" above)

The most complex levels are usually more accurare, but could slow down significantly the whole process (up to several dozens of seconds per page)

The different possible levels are:

High resolution

When a document is made of many tiny staves, some inaccuracy errors can occur in the vertical positioning of notes and rests.
Switching to high resolution increases the precision (and the computation time). You can define that all documents will be loaded in high resolution from the general preferences.

Reset to default settings


This applies to all settings from "Allow multi-voice staves" to "High-definition".

• If no PDF document is open and this option is inactive, then all default calculation settings are already identical to the factory's.
This option is active when at least one default setting has been changed.
Differences are displayed in bold, and you can reset them all to factory settings either by selecting this option, or manually, one by one.

• If at least one PDF document is open and this option is inactive, then the settings for the frontmost document are aleady indentical to those by default.
This option is active when at least one setting has been changed for this document.
Differences are displayed in bold, and you can reset them all to default settings either by selecting this option, or manually, one by one.

"Settings" menu


This menu enables to set up the PDFtoMusic behaviour. Don't hesitate to explore carefully the numerous options. It can prove to be very useful.

Preferences

Opens the general preference window. You can adjust from here the way the PDFtoMusic Pro interface will react. The miscellaneous options are arranged in sections.
A complete description of each section is provided here.

Toolbar

Enables to customise the icons in the documents toolbar. This is functionally identical to right-click the toolbar then select "Setup".

Expert mode

It's the PDFtoMusic Pro calculation fine setup.
A complete description of each section is provided here.

"Window" menu


With this menu you will manage tools and select opened documents.

Mixer

Opens the mixer

Virtual keyboard

Opens the virtual keyboard

Lyrics following


Opens the lyrics following.



The document window


PDFtoMusic displays Adobe PDF files as documents. Several documents can be loaded simultaneously.

General points
Toolbar
Drawer
Saving files


General points

While loading and processing a PDF file, analysis progress is shown through icons. You can cancel the processing at any point by hitting the "Esc" key or by closing the window.

Once the analysis is complete, the PDF drawing is displayed in a document window.

Toolbar

The toolbar in the upper part of this window enables you to play music, navigate within the score, pause and restart playback and adjust volume or tempo (playback speed).



Tips:

If the document contains several pages, the following icons enable you to switch to the previous or next page. You can also use the vertical scrollbar to move through the whole document.

The next icons change the display scale of the document.

The "info" icon displays information about the document. These details are extracted from the PDF file: title, document author, creation date, as well as the character fonts embedded in this document.

If the Adobe PDF document include lyrics, the "bird" icon is present. Click this icon to activate the virtual singer before starting playback. This default setting can be changed in Preferences, "Document" section.

The "export" icon exports the music piece in the current format specified in general preferences, "Export" section. But you can also select another format from the file selector, by typing in the matching extension. For instance, to export in Wave format, end the filename with ".WAV".
You can cancel the export at any time by hitting the Esc key.

Right-clicking (or Shift + click) on the toolbar changes its appearance.



The "Setup..." option enables to customise the toolbar icon list according to your needs.

Drawer


If your document contains several pages, the last icon opens and closes the drawer. A drawer is a secondary window, linked to the main one, that shows a general preview of the document. Click a thumbnail to jump directly to the selected page.
If errors have been found, a warning sign is displayed, specifying the number of errors detected on this page.

drawer


Saving files

When amendments have been applied to the document, as for instance a change in the instruments, volume, or music symbols recognition, you can save these changes so that they will be preserved when loading the file again later.
PDFtoMusic lets you choose beween two modes that can be set up from general preferences.

1- Save changes in the Adobe PDF file itself
(When Settings > Preferences > Document > Store corrections in PDF file is checked)

Data is preserved in the Adobe PDF file. A backup copy of this file is performed. This doesn't affect the way this PDF file is displayed by other programs.

The advantage to this mode is that, when you send the file to somebody else, your changes are carried along.

2- Save changes in a separate file
(When Settings > Preferences > Document > Store corrections in PDF file is not checked)

The original Adobe PDF file is not modified, and the data are stored in a separate file, created in the "Correction" subfolder of your user file space.

Please note that, in this mode, you can still generate a PDF file in which your amendments are embedded by using the "File > Save as..." menu option.

General setup



This dialog box enables you to set up the PDFtoMusic Pro behaviour. Don't hesitate to explore carefully the numerous options. It can prove to be very useful.

Quick Links

Starting
Document
Alerts
MusicXML
Export
Batch Processing
Glyphs


Starting

Load documents automatically at startup
If ticked, when the application is started, documents that were open during the last session are automatically reloaded. It's possible to cancel the processing at any time, either by closing the window, or by hitting the Esc key. You'll then be asked for confirming cancellation.

Open file selector ar startup
When ticked, if no document is loaded when the application starts, the file selector will automatically open, so that you can select a file to be loaded.

Open file selector ar startup
When ticked, if no document is loaded when the application starts, the file selector will automatically open, so that you can select a file to be loaded.

Document

Store corrections in PDF file
When ticked, the amendments you could have applied to the PDF file are stored within the file itself. When not ticked, they are saved into a separate file, located in the "Corrections" folder of your user folder.

Note: see the chapter about the miscellaneous file saving modes.

Make a backup copy of the original PDF file

If changes are stored in the PDF file itself, you can also ask for a backup copy .bak.pdf to be created at the same level as the original PDF file. It is even recommended.

Open drawer automatically
When ticked, the drawer will be automatically open if the document contains more than one page.

Open full screen
When ticked the document window will extend over the whole screen when loaded.

Activate Virtual Singer automatically
You can specify whether Virtual Singer is active or not when a document is loaded.

Activate MyrSynth automatically
If ticked, when possible, instruments will play using MyrSynth, our high-quality physical modeling synthesizer.

Display recognition results
When ticked, the recognition results will be displayed when the document is loaded.

Note: you can activate/deactivate this display through the "Display" menu.

Warn when embedded fonts are missing
Some PDF files do not embed the font drawing for the characters they use. PDFtoMusic Pro can warn you when such a case occurs.

Full path in document title
If ticked, the complete path to the PDF file will be displayed in the document window title.

Play music automatically
Music will start playing as soon as the PDF file has been processed

At the end of the process
In this drop-down menu, select the sound that will be played when the PDF file has been processed.

Apply corrections drop-down menu
Defines the default settings for the "Correction" menu options when a new PDF file is processed. Each of them can be activated/deactivated on a per-document basis through the menu.

Alerts




Display processing errors into a text window

When PDFtoMusic Pro detects an error when processing the document, it will display a small icon over the document itself representing each item you have ticked in the Alerts panel of general preferences.
In parallel, PDFtoMusic Pro can create a list of all errors encountered as text in a special window (pink background). Right-clicking this window opens a contextual menu for erasing, saving or printing the window content.

The following items enable you to mask some errors (these errors are still present but no longer displayed). Here are the descriptions of the miscellaneous processing errors

Display "Impossible to apply beam"
PDFtoMusic Pro recognized a character that looks like a beam, but couldn't find any music symbol close enough.

Display "Impossible to apply ornament"
PDFtoMusic Pro located a character that looks like a note ornament, but couldn't find a note close enough.

Display "Broken slur"
PDFtoMusic Pro recognized the shape of a slur (possibly a tie), but either it could find the source note for this slur but not the target note, or it could find the target note but not the source. It therefore can't apply the slur.

Display "Impossible to find a measure for this symbol"
PDFtoMusic Pro recognized a musical character in the document, but could not relate it to any measure (bar) area. It can happen for instance for some time signature indicators that are put as a reminder at the beginning of a line.

Display 'Impossible to find the reference note on tablature"
When the document shows tablatures for fretted instruments, PDFtoMusic Pro estimates the duration of notes written on the tablature by seeking for the matching note in the regular staff. If PDFtoMusic Pro can't find this reference note, it generates this error.

Display "Incorrect measure duration"
When several staves are present in a single system (staff group), PDFtoMusic Pro checks that the duration of each bar is consistent. If PDFtoMusic Pro detects a difference in measure duration, this error is generated. It can occur in the following situations:

    . PDFtoMusic  Pro made a previous miscalculation either when extracting the symbol duration, or when locating chords within the measure (especially when notes in chord are not on the same vertical line)

   . There is an error in the source score's notation. This may depend on a number of factors, including the overall accuracy of the source program used to create the PDF.


In some cases, PDFtoMusic Pro can consider two notes that are horizontally close together to be in chord, instead of considering that they are consecutive.
By un-checking the various options in the "Correction" menu, you can deactivate the display of specific types of errors that cause "Incorrect measure duration" warnings.


MusicXML

These are the options for creating MusicXML files.

Enable MusicXML format extensions
PDFtoMusic Pro is based on the MusicXML format. To import MusicXML files that have been created by PDFtoMusic Pro, you must use Melody Assistant version 7.3 or more, or Harmony Assistant version 9.3 or more.

Although very complete, MusicXML format in its version 1.1 doesn't manage some objects that can be found on scores. In agreement with the MusicXML team, we added specific commands to the MusicXML format.
If the software used for reading the XML files is compliant with the standard, these additional commands won't be a problem. In the best case, they will be processed, and in the worst, simply ignored.
Otherwise, disable this option to forbid any extension to the standard.

Create MusicXML even if no vector music data have been extracted
PDFtoMusic Pro reads the PDF document in search for a music score. If it can't find any, for instance if you ask PDFtoMusic Pro  to process a payslip, you will be warned through and alert box that no vector musical data could be located.
This can also occur when a PDF document doesn't contain a score made of  elemental graphic object, but a scanned music sheet.
Activating this option forces PDFtoMusic Pro to generate a MusicXML file from these data, even if they are not considered as music data.
To date, only Harmony Assistant or Melody Assistant enable to load such MusicXML documents.

Export measures filled with rest as empty measures
Enables not to export in the MusicXML files the rests that fill completely the measure. These measures will be considered by the software that imports the file as filled by a "logical" rest instead of a "physical" one. In some cases, in can ease the edit process.

Use MusicXML 2.0 format
When this option is ticked, the export is made in MusicXML 2.0 format.
This format, more advanced, enables to keep more information about the score appearance, but might not be supported by music notation programs.

Export

The export settings don't affect batch processing, which uses its own options.
When loading a PDF file, PDFtoMusic Pro analyzes it automatically. It can then export it immediately in any of the available formats, and open this resulting document in an external application. The following options are available in the Export tab of the Preferences:

Export all opened files automatically
This check box activates/deactivates the automatic export.

"to folder..."
If automatic export is activated, use this option to select the path to the folder where the resulting documents will be stored.

The "Change" button enables you to select another (file) path.

"File format"
This pop-up menu lets you select the export format to be used (Cf appendix about format description)

Don't export page setup
When this option is active, measure size, space between staves, page breaks, objects related to pages are not exported. Number of measure by line is set to 4. This mode is automaticaly enabled when we ask to export a reduced number of parts.

Open automatically exported files
When this option is active, each exported document will be opened automatically by the program of your choice (it supposes that the selected software is capable of reading this kind of file).

The "Edit" button enables you to select the application that will be used for opening each of the export file formats.
The "Delete" button lets you specify that you don't want this format to be processed.

 

Batch processing

When you ask PDFtoMusic Pro to process a set of PDF documents through the "Batch processing" option, some alerts can be displayed during the processing. When this option is active, these alert boxes will close automatically after a few seconds, so that the processing is not stopped and can continue to its end.

Glyphs

PDFtoMusic Pro uses optical recognition algorithms on music fonts to detemine the meaning of each symbol.

Store glyphs into a cache
When this option is ticked, symbols that have already been encountered at least once will be processed more quickly.
However, activating this option can lead to a bigger memory consumption.

Erase font cache at exit
When this option is not ticked, glyphs are preserved from one session to another.
Deactivating this option can lead to a bigger memory consumption.

Note: the glyph cache is located in the preference folder:
"Myriad Preferences/PDFtoMusic/GlyphesData". Please do not apply any action to this folder while PDFtoMusic Pro is running.

Expert mode


Expert settings allow the user to override the automated settings of PDFtoMusic Pro up in order to improve recognition of one or several documents.

You'll intervene directly on the internal algorithms of PDFtoMusic Pro.
By default, PDFtoMusic Pro is set to mean values, that work well for most of the PDF files. But for some specific files, these settings can lead to errors, that you can fix from here.
This needs a good knowledge about how PDFtoMusic Pro processes PDF files. Please only change one value at a time, and apply slight changes.

But don't panic, you can restore the default values at any time by clicking the "Reset" button.

These settings are applied when the PDF document is loaded, so they don't affect the documents already in memory.

The miscellaneous sections are provided in a precise order: the sequence used by PDFtoMusic to analyze a document.
For instance, concatenation of characters to build words is performed before analyzing words.

For each section, a complexity level is provided, from low to high.
Before applying changes to a section of high complexity level, please reflect deeply...


Quick Links

Editing settings
Horiz. & vert. lines
Staves
Slanted lines
Systems & groups
Barlines
Clef
Time signature
Notes
Ledger lines
Accidentals

Stems
Rests
Tuplets
Dots
Ornaments
Fingering
Slur
Tie
Beam
Fonts
Characters
Words
Lyrics
Paragraphs
Multiple bars
Parts / Endings
Crescendo / decrescendo
Dynamics
Octave Offset
Pictures




Editing settings

The first time you ask for expert mode settings, you are asked for a confirmation.
Then you see this dialog box:





At the left of this window is the menu of various expert mode options. Each section is described in detail later in this chapter. If a value from a section has changed from the default value, a star icon is displayed before the section name.
On the right, sliders that enable to change a value. Double-clicking the numeric value edits its value as  a text. If the value is different from default, the offset is displayed on the right.

At the bottom, several buttons:

• Default
Defines current expert settings as the default values for PDFtoMusic Pro calculation. To be used with great care.

• Reset
Resets expert settings to their original value for the current section only, or for all sections.

• Load
Loads an expert setting definition file, previously saved through the "Save" option. This affects all sections.

• Save
Save all expert settings in a definition file. This enables you to create predefined sets of parameters.

• << and >>
Switches from one section to another, you can also click in the section list.

Please note that if you change one or several expert settings, when running PDFtoMusic Pro, an alert will be displayed to alert you that you'll process PDF files with different parameters than the default.

In the same way, when you send an e-mail to the technical support (Internet menu), all the parameters that have been changed are attached, so that we can work on your files with the same settings as yours.


Horiz. & vert. lines

Complexity : high

Horizontal and vertical lines are an essential element, and the first step in analysis.
They form staff lines, barlines and note stems that constitute the document's backbone.
Line analysis is performed before staff seeking, so units are pixels.
If some staves appear to be missing after analysis, altering these settings could help.



A score excerpt
What PDFtoMusic Pro detects

• Horizontal imprecision for line merging (in pixels)
When lines are actually made of several small lines end to end, increasing this value will enable a more tolerant merging of these lines.

Vertical imprecision for line merging (in pixels)
Some thick lines are actually made of several thick lines, drawn on top of each other. Increasing this value will enable a more tolerant merging of these lines.

• Minimum line size for dust removal (in pixels)
Small useless lines are sometimes found, which can be removed with this setting.

Staves

Complexity : high

Once horizontal lines have been detected, PDFtoMusic Pro will try to determine staves: a set of more or less equidistant horizontal lines, with end positions rather close.
Once staves have been extracted, the document general unit is known: the "line space", i.e. the distance between two horizontal lines in the same staff.


Detected horizontal and vertical lines
Detected staff lines

• Horizontal imprecision for staff lines connection (in pixels)
Maximum tolerance for merging two lines drawn end to end into a single one.

• Vertical imprecision for staff lines (in pixels)
Maximum tolerance for merging two lines drawn on top of each other in a single, thicker one.

• Maximum line thickness (in pixels)
Enables to remove too thick lines. If you see, on your document, undetected staves with rather thick staff lines, increase this value.

• Maximum line space (ratio of the page height)
Lines which are too far apart in your document can be removed with this option. If staves with rather outspread staff lines go undetected, as can occur in tablature, increase this value.
Be careful, too much tolerance will detect staves where there are none.

• Minimum horizontal size for staff lines (ratio of the page width)
Lines which are too short can be removed with this option. For instance, one or two measures, or even a whole paragraph of underlined text might be  drawn as an embellishment, and do not match the actual content of the score. Or, for instance, a whole paragraph of underlined text

• Line space imprecision (in line spaces)
This value sets the calculation tolerance when searching for equidistant horizontal lines. On some PDF files generated with a low resolution, horizontal lines of a staff are not regularly spaced.

Slanted lines

Complexity: average

Slanted lines are mainly used to draw beams, hairpins or tuplet groupings.



A score excerpt
In red, what PDFtoMusic detects

• Imprecision for slope comparison
Increasing this value will enable slanted lines with more different slopes but drawn end to end to be merged together.

• Horizontal imprecision for line merging (in line spaces)
• Vertical
imprecision for line merging (in line spaces)
Increasing these values will allow two lines of similar slope on top of each other to be merged together in order to make a thicker line.

• Vertical distance for line end comparison (in line spaces)
Increasing this value will enable slanted lines that are not perfectly end to end to be merged together in order to make a longer line.

• Thickness imprecision for slanted line merging (in line spaces)
Prevents slanted lines from merging if they meet all the above requirements but their thickness is different.


• Dust removal on slanted lines: Minimum allowed size (in line spaces)
Small useless lines are sometimes found, which can be removed with this setting.

Systems & groups

Complexity: average

Staves have now been found, as well as slanted lines. PDFtoMusic Pro will aggregate staves into staff groups. Vertical lines or brace and bracket symbols located in the left margin are extracted.



A score excerpt
What PDFtoMusic Pro extracts:
A three staves system.
The two bottom staves are grouped into a single part by the brace.

• Horizontal imprecision for system seeking (in line spaces)
In some documents, the grouping symbol is either far from the left end of the staff, or within the staff area. This setting determines the maximum distance in line spaces.
If this value is zero, each staff becomes an independent system.

Vertical imprecision for system seeking (in line spaces)
The maximum distance between the end of the grouping symbol and the top or bottom of the staff.

Barlines

Complexity: average

Once staves have been grouped together, PDFtoMusic Pro will locate vertical lines that start at the top of the system or staff, and end at the bottom of the system or staff, in order to extract barlines.


a) thick barline
b) thin barline
c) double thin barline

• Minimum thickness for a thick barline (in line spaces)
Specifies at what point a barline should be defined as thick.
If, for instance, repeat barlines are not recognized, decrease this value.
Conversely, if too many bold barlines are recognized, increase this value.

• Minimum distance between two thin barlines (in line spaces)
Sometimes, a barline is drawn several time at the end of the measure in the PDF file. Increasing this value will replace double barlines with single ones.

• Minimum measure width (ratio of the staff height)
Measures are supposed to contain symbols, so they should be wide enough. But some measures can be narrow (upbeat for instance). Decrease this value if several narrow measures are merged into one.

Clef

Complexity: low

Once staves have been grouped together, and measures detected, PDFtoMusic Pro will begin to interpret the individual symbols. It starts with clefs.

• Minimum height for a clef symbol (in line spaces)
Minimal symbol height to consider it as a valid clef.

• Minimum height of a 8 or 15 over clef  (in line spaces)
Minimum height for considering a clef octave offset (8va, 8vb, 15ma...) as valid.

Maximum height of a 8 or 15 over clef  (in line spaces)
Maximum height for considering a clef octave offset (8va, 8vb, 15ma...) as valid.


Time signature

Complexity: low

Unabbreviated time signatures can easily be taken for miscellaneous numbers like tuplets or fingering.
The following settings allow time signatures to be more accurately interpreted in these cases.

• Vertical parting position between time signature numerator and denominator (ratio)
Determines how much line spacing is allowed between the numerator and denominator to be considered part of the same time signature object. This is expressed as a percentage (ratio) of the character height.

• Minimum size for time signature numbers  (in line spaces)
Numbers (digits) below this size threshold are not considered to be part of the time signature.

• Maximum horizontal shift between time signature digits (in line spaces)

When numbers are made of several digits, this setting defines the maximum horizontal distance between them.

Notes

Complexity: low

It's now time to detect notes that are drawn on the staff...

• Maximum size of a grace note head (in line spaces)
Adjusts discrepancies between grace note and regular note size.
Notes are always bigger than grace notes on the same document.

However, this difference is sometimes small. If grace notes are mistaken for notes, decrease this value.







Maximum size of a grace note drawn in one symbol (in line spaces)
When grace note head, stem and flag is drawn through a single character, maximum size of this character

• Maximum distance from the flag to the note (in line spaces)

Flags which are too far from the notehead can be removed.

See also: "Dots" section.

Ledger lines

Complexity: low

Some notes are drawn outside the staff line area. To relate them to the right staff, but also to show clearly their degree, small horizontal lines are drawn between the notehead and the staff.



• Maximum size of a ledger line (in line spaces)
Ledger lines wider than the specified value will be ignored.

• Maximum horizontal distance between notehead and the ledger line (in line spaces)
• Maximum vertical distance between notehead and the ledger line (in line spaces)
The notehead is supposed to be more or less centered on the ledger line. These settings enable to adjust this tolerance.

Accidentals

Complexity: low

Accidentals are related to notes. However, when a key change occurs, similar symbols are displayed before notes but are defining the new key value. Changing these settings can lead PDFtoMusic to consider note accidentals as a key change, or vice versa.


• Maximum vertical distance between accidental and notehead (in line spaces)
If the accidental is verticaly too far from the notehead center, it's not taken into account. This setting has rarely to be adjusted. (a)

• Maximum horizontal distance between the right of the accidental and the left of the notehead (in line spaces)
When notes are in a chord, the accidental may have to be shifted left in order to avoid overlapping. Increasing this value will tend to relate the accidental to the note instead of a key change. However, more complex algorithms try to keep consistency in the results provided by this setting (b)

Special cases can be solved by adjusting this value, as in this example:


Where accidentals are drawn far away from the noteheads.


• Maximum horizontal distance between accidentals and notes in chord (in line spaces)
In the same way, in a chord, accidental placement follows a logical scheme. Increasing this value will make PDFtoMusic Pro search for accidentals farther from the noteheads (c).

Stems

Complexity: low

Finding proper stems is crucial because it determines both note duration and chords.
Indeed, the note will be linked to beams and flags through its stem.


• Maximum horizontal distance between the notehead and the stem (in line spaces)
Vertical lines drawn too far from the notehead won't be taken into account. (a)

• Maximum thickness of a stem (in line spaces)

Vertical lines thicker than this value won't be taken into account. (b)

• Minimum size of a stem (in line spaces)
Smaller vertical lines won't be taken into account. In certain documents, notes are drawn with very short stems. It will then be necessary to decrease this value. (c)

• Minimum size of a grace note stem (in line spaces)
Smaller vertical lines won't be considered as grace note stems.

• Maximum size of a stem (in line spaces)
Longer vertical lines won't be taken into account. (c)

Rests

Complexity: low

The main problem with rests is to recognize whole rests. It is indeed a very basic shape (a rectangle) that can be confused with an horizontal beam or a tenuto symbol for instance. The following settings will help to differentiate.

• Minimum width of a whole rest  (in line spaces)
• Maximum width of a whole rest  (in line spaces)

Too wide, or not wide enough rectangles are not considered.

Minimum height of a whole rest  (in line spaces)
• Maximum
height of a whole rest  (in line spaces)
Too thick, or not thick enough rectangles are not considered.

• Maximum vertical distance from the rest to the staff area (in line spaces)
Most of the time, the vertical height of rests is in the staff area. However, particularly when the staff is made of several voices, the rest is shifted up or down in order to avoid ovelapping with other symb This value sets the maximum offset from the rest to the upper or lower bound of the staff.


Tuplets

Complexity: low

Tuplets can apply to notes and rests. They are generally drawn above or below a beam. They can be drawn using a bracket that specifies the notes to apply the tuplet to.
Tuplets can be confused with fingering notation.
Tuplet seeking can be deactivated through the "Correction" menu, for the whole document.



• Maximum horizontal distance between the number and the middle of the beam (in line spaces)
When the tuplet is related to a group of beamed notes, the tuplet number is centered on the beam. This value defines the maximum offset from this ideal value. (a)

• Maximum vertical distance between a tuplet and the line (in line spaces)
The tuplet number is usally close to the beam. This value defines the the maximum offset from this ideal value. (b)

• For thin lines broken by a tuplet value, Maximum horizontal distance between the line end and the note (in line spaces)
Sometimes, the tuplet is drawn with a bracket that encloses notes. This value defines the maximum gap between the number and the line end (c)

• Maximum horizontal distance for connecting broken tuplet lines (in line spaces)

When the tuplet number is drawn over the line, this line is broken. This value defines the maximum width of the gap (d)

• Minimum height for tuplet text (in line spaces)
• Maximum height for tuplet text (in line spaces)
These bounds of tuplet character height help to differentiate between a tuplet and a fingering.


• For discriminating between a tuplet and a fingering ornament, ratio between the number of  text objects that can make a well placed tuplet and the number of text objects that can make a tuplet
The possible confusion level between tuplet and fingering is calculated, and if too high (big proportion of possible misplaced tuplets), we'll suppose that tuplets are all drawn with a bracket.

Dots

Complexity: low

Dots can be drawn after the notehead to alter its duration, or they can be staccato or repeat barline elements.

• Minimal size of a dot (in line space)

Dust (small meaningless dots) can be removed with this setting.

• Maximum size of a dot, to discriminate it from a grace note head (in line spaces)
Enables to discriminate between a dot and a grace note head.
Increasing this value can affect the double-whole rest recognition

• Maximum vertical distance between the notehead and the dot (in line spaces)
The duration dot related to a notehead to make a dotted note value can be shifted vertically. If a duration dot is not taken into account, increase this value slightly.

• Maximum horizontal distance between the notehead and the dot (in line spaces)
Defines the maximum horizontal distance for a dot to be considered as being related to a notehead.

• Maximum distance between the dot and the repeat bar (in line spaces)
If a repeat barline is taken for a piece start or end barline, increase this value.

Ornaments

Complexity: average

PDFtoMusic has some settings to manually compensate for graphical similarities, such as the shape of tenuto ornaments and whole rests.




• Minimum horizontal size for a tenuto (in line spaces) (b)
• Maximum horizontal size for a tenuto (in line spaces)
• Minimum vertical size for a tenuto (in line spaces)
(a)
A tenuto is a small horizontal line usually drawn above the notehead. Many kinds of horizontal lines can appear on a score. These values can be adjusted to locate tenuti between the horizontal lines that haven't yet been processed as staff lines or ledger lines.

• Maximum horizontal distance between ornament and note (in line spaces) (c)
• Maximum vertical distance between ornament and note (in line spaces)
(d)
Ornaments are generally placed near the note they are related to. These values define the maximum tolerated distance.

• Minimum horizontal size of an ornament (in line spaces)
Some very small shapes can be taken for ornaments. This value removes very small shapes that can be taken for ornaments.

Fingering


Complexity: average

Fingerings are numerical values from 0 to 5 that define the finger of the performer that has to be used to play the note.
They can be easily confused with tuplets.
To know the height of a character on the page, hold the mouse pointer over the object for one second.

• Fingering character minimum height (in line spaces)
• Fingering character maximum height (in line spaces)

Adjusting fingering character height bounding values can, in some cases, help to differenciate between a tuplet and a fingering.

Slur

Complexity: low

Slurs and ties are always related to two notes: the source note and the target note.
For each shape likely to be a slur, PDFtoMusic Pro searches for the matching notes. If the slur is split because its staff reaches the right edge of the page, PDFtoMusic will seek the target note in the matching staff of the next system.

• Maximum horizontal distance between the slur end and the notehead (in line spaces)
• Maximum vertical distance between the slur end and the notehead (in line spaces)

Maximum distance between the notehead and the slur end. It only affects the rough search of notes related to the slur.

Minimum slur height (in line spaces)
Defines the amount of arc a slur must have in order not to be considered a horizontal line.

• Imprecision for slur seeking (in line spaces)
Fine setting for finding the note to be related to the slur.

• Vertical imprecision for connecting slurs from a system to another (in line spaces)
When a slur is broken by the end of the page, a second slur is searched for in the equivalent staff of the next system. This value defines the vertical tolerance for finding the second slur.
 
• Imprecision for merging two overlapping slurs (in line spaces)
In some files, several slurs are drawn at the same place. In order to reduce them to only one slur, an area comparison is performed, with this tolerance.

• Ratio of two-part slurs (mirror) occurrence
In some files, slurs are drawn in two parts, one for the first half, then one (mirorred) for the second part. An analysis is performed for determining whether the file follows this way of displaying slurs.
If the number of end to end slurs compared to the number of separated slurs is greater than the ratio, slurs are considered to be mirrored.
 
In some cases the slurs are traced via a multitude of small lines.
The following parameters allow you to adjust the splicing precision of these lines.

-Horizontal search precision for castings drawn with lines (in line spaces)
-Precision of vertical search for flows drawn with lines (in line spaces)

Tie

Complexity: low

Slurs have been extracted, PDFtoMusic Pro now tries to find which of them are actually ties.
This needs the note height to be compared, as well as a rather short distance between the notehead and the tie end:

• Maximal horizontal distance between the tie end and the note head (in line spaces)
• Maximal vertical distance between the tie end and the note head (in line spaces)


Beam

Complexity: average

Horizontal and slanted lines that have not been processed yet will be analyzed in order to see whether they connect to note stems and are thick enough. They will consitute the beams..



• Horizontal imprecision between stem position and beam (in line spaces)
Adjusts how far from the note stem the beam is allowed to appear before it is no longer considered a beam grouping. This value enables to adjust this tolerance (a).
Note that PDFtoMusic may interpret tenuto ornaments as beams if this value is increased.

• Horizontal imprecision between stem position and beam for tremolo (in line spaces)
For tremolos, the beam doesn't connect to the stem (b)

• Vertical imprecision between stem position and beam (in line spaces)
In the same way, vertically the stem end has to be close to the beam (c)

• Minimum thickness of the beam (in line spaces)
Horizontal and slanted lines will be considered as beams only if their thickness is above this value (d)
Be aware a too low value can disturb the tuplet recognition.

• Maximal thickness of the beam (in line spaces)
Horizontal and slanted lines will be considered as beams only if their thickness is below this value (d)

• Minimal distance between beam and notehead (in line spaces)
Beams have to be far enough from the notehead (e)

• Tolerance for multiple beam slope comparison
When a beam is made of several lines, they have to be more or less parallel. This value is the tolerance between these beam slopes.

Fonts

Complexity: low

• Ratio between characters on the staves and the total number of characters for considering a font as a music font
In order to know whether a font is used for drawing music symbols or text, the way the font characters are spread on the page is analyzed.
The number of characters drawn inside the staff areas is counted, as well as the number of characters outside these areas.
This ratio is compared to the value of this parameter, and the font type determined.

Please note that this result can be changed after the fact by manually editing the font type ("Correction" menu)



Characters


Complexity: low

Characters that have not been yet processed as music symbols will be analyzed in order to form words.

• Maximum vertical distance between a character and the word it belongs to (in percent of the word height)


Defines the imprecision in the word base line. The greater value, the more characters located on slightly different line will be considered as belonging to the same word.
Especially useful for for superscripted letters, as in chord suffixes like "C7", where the "7" is shifted up.

• Maximum horizontal distance between the end of a word and a character for concatenation (as a ratio of the word height)

With a greater value, characters farther apart horizontally will be considered as belonging to the same word.
If this value is too high, lyrics related to the staff might merge into a single word.
More important: on tablatures, cell numbers can be erroneous. For instance, a 3 followed by another 3 on the same string will give "33"

• Maximum horizontal distance between the end of the word and the musical symbol for tempo markings  (in percent of the word height)

Enables to merge the tempo text indication and the musical one, made of a note followed by an "equal" symbol and the tempo value.

• Minimal distance between two identical characters (in percent of the character height)

In some files, each character is drawn several time, -almost- at the same place. This parameter enables to remove these identical characters when another one has already been drawn.


Words

Complexity: low

Characters have been grouped into words. These words will constitute word lines, and these lines analyzed to determine whether they are lyrics, or chord names.
Bar numbers, staff or staff group names are extracted.

•Vertical imprecision for creating word lines (as a ratio of the word height)
Defines vertical tolerance for creating word lines.
 
• Maximum horizontal distance between measure start and its number (in line spaces)
• Maximum vertical distance between measure start and its number (in line spaces)
This defines maximum distances for measure number seeking.

• Maximum vertical distance between the staff and its name (in line spaces)
Staff name is supposed to be vertically centered on the staff line area. This parameter defines the tolerance.


Lyrics

Complexity: low

Word lines that are not chord name lines will be analyzed to extract lyric lines. A lyric line is always located under its matching staff.

• Ratio for discrimination between dash and underline
Horizontal lines in a lyric line are considered as dashes or underline (melisma). The vertical position of the line, in proportion of the line height, differenciates between them.

Ratio between the number of words and the number of notes in a staff line, theoretically 1.
Enables not considering some words as lyrics, if greater than the limit.

Sometimes, text lines, drawn under a staff are not lyric lines, but for instance, the page footer. The words that can be related to a note are counted, in proportion with those which can't. If this ratio is below the provided value, the line won't be considered as a lyric line.

• Maximum distance between the first line of lyrics and the bottom of the staff (in line spaces)

If the first word line is too far from the bottom of the staff, it is not considered as a lyric line.

• Maximum vertical distance between lyrics lines  (in multiple of the line height)
When searching music with several lyric verses, this setting determines the maximum distance to consider between verses.


Matching ratio between notes for shared lyrics
When a lyric line is located between two parts, notes in the two staves are compared, and a matching ratio between them is computed. If the result is greater than this parameter value, lyrics are considered as shared between the two staves.


Paragraphs

Complexity: low

Words that have not been yet processed as lyrics, chord names, staff names, etc, will be grouped into paragraphs and exported as free text.
First, words will be aggregated into word lines, then the lines vertically merged into paragraphs.

• Maximum horizontal distance for merging text in lines (as a multiple of the font size)
Maximum distance between two words on the same line.

• Maximum horizontal distance for adding a space in line (as a multiple of the font size)
If the distance between two words on a same line is greater than this value, a space character will be inserted between them.
 

• Maximum horizontal distance for merging lines in a paragraph (as a multiple of the font size)
Maximum horizontal offset between two lines in a same paragraph. It is applied to the left and the right of the lines (paragraphs can be justified)

• Maximum vertical distance for merging lines in a paragraph (as a multiple of the font size)
Maximum vertical distance between two lines of a same paragraph.

Multiple bars

Complexity: low

Multi-rest measures are drawn as a symbol at the center of the measure, and a number above.


• Minimum height of the multi-rest number (in line spaces)

The number has to be tall enough (a)

• Maximum offset between the multi-rest number and the measure center (in line spaces)
The number has to be more or less centered in the measure (b)

• Maximum distance between the multi-rest number and the staff (in line spaces)

The number has to be drawn above the staff, but not too far (c)

Parts / Endings

Complexity: low

Part indicators define portions of the score that are played only at some times.


• Maximum thickness of a part line (in line spaces)
Vertical or horizontal lines thinner than this value will be ignored (a)

• Minimum height of the vertical line (in line spaces)
Vertical lines at the beginning and the end have to be tall enough (b)

• Minimum length of the horizontal line (in line spaces)
The line that joins the beginning and the end can be broken, we define here its minimum length (c)

• Imprecision for connecting vertical and horizontal lines (in line spaces)
Vertical and horizontal lines are interpreted as part of the same (ending) bracket only if they are within this tolerance.

• Minimum height of numbers (in line spaces)
Numbers have to be big enough (d)

• Minimum height of dot (in line spaces)
The dot between numbers, if present, must be big enough. If it is not, it will be removed, in order to avoid confusion with a staccato, for instance.


Crescendo / decrescendo

Complexity: low

Slanted lines that have not been considered yet as beams are analyzed in order to determine whether they connect by one of their ends. Depending on the result, they are either considered as crescendo, decrescendo or marcato.



• Horizontal imprecision for seeking the two lines of the symbol (in line spaces)
• Vertical imprecision for seeking the two lines of the symbol (in line spaces)

Lines have to connect with enough accuracy (a & b)

• Minimum size for a decrescendo. If smaller, the decrescendo will be changed into a marcato (in line spaces)
Decrescendo has to be wide enough, otherwise it is considered as a marcato (c)

• Comparison of crescendo line size (as a ratio of the reference size)
Lines must be of about the same length (d)

Dynamics

Complexity: low

• Maximal distance between dynamic and middle of the staff (in line spaces)
If distance is greater than this value, dynamic marks (pp, mf, ff...) are not considered as such.

Octave offset

Complexity: low

Octave shift symbols (8va, 8vb, 15ma, 15mb) are followed by a line, dashed or not, that shows which notes are affected.



• Horizontal imprecision for seeking line on the right of the symbol (in line spaces)
The line must not start too far from the symbol (a)

• Vertical imprecision for seeking line on the right of the symbol (in line spaces)
Line has to be more or less vertically centered on the symbol (b)

• Discrimination between a line drawn with dashes and a line with dashed attributes (in line spaces)
Maximum distance between dashes when the line is drawn dashed (c)

Pictures

Complexity: low

In a PDF file, pictures can either be decorative or draw the shape of a music symbol.

• Maximum size of pictures to be processed as music symbols (in pixels)
Bigger pictures will be considered as decorative.

• Minimal size of pictures to be processed as music symbols (in line spaces)
Smaller pictures will be considered as decorative.

• Minimum size of pictures to be exported in the result (in pixels)
Smaller pictures will be ignored and won't be exported in the result file.


Chord grids

Complexity: low

A grid of horizontal and vertical lines is sought. A chord name is associated with this grid.

Minimum and maximum distance between two lines (in line spaces)
minimum and maximum distances between grid lines.

Inaccuracy of start of line (in line spaces)
tolerance for the search for the beginning of lines

Maximum distance between diagram and staff (in line spaces)
diagrams that are too far apart will be eliminated.

 

Kooplet



Introduction


Kooplet is a search engine specialized in music scores.

From a note pattern Kooplet will display a list of documents from the Internet that contain this pattern.
Processed file formats are those containing all necessary information to provide an editable score. For instance, digital audio formats (wav,aiff,mp3,etc) are ignored.
Kooplet will provide links to files in Myr, PDF, Mu3, Mus, XML, MXL, Abc, Etf, Tef, Nwc, Enc, Tab, Mid, Kar, Mod, S3m, Cmf, Sty, Rhp, Etf, Gp5, Gp4, Gp3 or Gtp format.
PDF files can be converted by PDFtoMusic or PDFtoMusic Pro, the others can be imported directly in Harmony Assistant.
By clicking the "Play" button below the search result area, you'll be able to hear the note pattern in its context.

Three search modes are available. Search mode can be selected from the first icon in the toolbar:

- Search for pitch, regardless of the rhythm

- Search for rhythm, regardless of the pitch

- Search for both pitch and rhythm
 
It is also possible to search music score files for text, as well in the titles or comments as in the lyrics.

If a text and a music pattern are entered, result documents match both the text and the pattern.

Contrarily to other generic search engines, Kooplet extracts information from within the music file content.
 
Documents are not stored on the Kooplet servers but remain on the site where they have been found. Therefore, when downloading or viewing a document, you will read it directly from the original site that hosts it.


The toolbar

The toolbar changes according to the selected search mode, or whether you insert notes or rests, etc.
From left to right, you can find:

Search mode selection
- Start and stop pattern playback
- Delete the whole pattern
Pattern input from the microphone (experimental)
- Sharp mode for note input
- Note/Rest input mode
- Symbol duration
- Dot mode

Tips

You can add symbols by clicking the virtual keyboard.
If you click the keyboard or the staff with the Shift key down, you hear the note without inserting any symbol.
If you click a symbol with the Alt key down, it is deleted.
If notes are selected in the frontmost document before Kooplet is activated, these note will be used as search pattern.


Advanced search

When searching for a text, if you write the words between quotes, search will be performed on these words in this order. Without quotes, it will be performed on these words in any order.
For instance, if a score contains lemon tree, it will match the tree lemon search, but not "tree lemon" between quote marks.

If you write a minus symbol before a word, this will have to be absent from the document text.
For instance, if you search for Ave Maria -Gounod, matching files will contain the words Ave and Maria, but not the word Gounod.

The "Setup" button set up the search broadness.

Command line version


PDFtoMusic enables to convert or hear PDF files without using the graphical user interface (GUI).
It is ran through a command line.
This operating mode is especially  intended to be used by visually impaired people, who cannot navigate within the interface.

On Macintosh :
When the program is installed, a p2mp command is created in the Applications folder.
Run the terminal and enter
/Applications/p2mp followed by the complete name of the PDF file to process.

On Linux :
When the program is installed, a p2mp command is created in the /usr/bin folder.
Run the terminal and enter
p2mp followed by the complete name of the PDF file to process.

On Windows :

A command called p2mp is available in the program install folder ("PDFtoMusic Pro" subfolder in "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)").
From an MS/DOS command window, move to this folder then enter p2mp followed by the complete name of the PDF file to process.

By default, the result file is created at the same level as the PDF file.

This way of working is provided for your personal purpose only. Using it in an automated system for the benefit of a third party is strictly forbidden.


Here are the available options:
-h, --help display this help
-v language
(EN,FR) turn verbose output on default: off
-firstpage nnn first page to process  
default: 1
-lastpage nnn last page to process
default: document's last
-password pass
password for protected PDF
default: none
-signal unique_id
provide an unique ID for slave computing (see below for all details)
default: none
-pathdest target_folder path where to create result files
default: same as the PDF file
-pathtemp target_folder
path where to create temporary files
default: temp system folder
-format name XML,MXL,MYR,MID,KAR,           WAV,AIFF,MP3,OGG,BMP,              MYRWEB,SVG,SVGM,NONE  default: XML for PDFtoMusic Pro, MYR for PDFtoMusic
-multivoices n 0 or 1
default: 1
-chords n
0 or 1
default: 1
-enhancedchords n 0 or 1  
default: 1
-tuplets n
0 or 1 default: 1
-fingering n 0 or 1 default: 1
-keychanges n
0 or 1 default: 1
-timesignaturechanges n 0 or 1 default: 1
-lyrics n 0 or 1 default: 1
-sharedlyrics
0 or 1
default: 1
-clefshift n 0 or 1 default: 1
-complexlines n
0 or 1
default: 0
-thinbeams n
0 or 1
default: 0
-breakadjust n
0 or 1
default: 1
-multirest n 0 or 1 default: 1
-shortbar n 0 or 1 default: 0
-leadgerlines n
0 or 1 default: 1
-tempi n 0 or 1 default: 1
-dynamics n 0 or 1 default: 1
-groupname n 0 or 1 default: 1
-bracketgroup 0 or 1 default: 0
-modernnotation n 0 or 1 default: 0
-matchlevel n 0 to 3
default: 2
-highdef n 0 or 1 default: 0
-register xxxx xxxx is your personal registration number
-vs n
Virtual Singer activity, 0 or 1
default: 1
-play the result is played once the PDF has
been processed
default: inactive
 
MyrWeb setup :

-mw_displayScore n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_embedAllViews n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_displayLyrics n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_exportMp3 n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_exportOgg n: 0 or 1
(default 0)
-mw_exportWav n: 0 or 1
(default 0)
-mw_seeKeyboard n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_embedOriginal n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_embedMXL n: 0 or 1
(default 0)
-mw_embedXML n: 0 or 1
(default 0)
-mw_embedMID n: 0 or 1
(default 0)
-mw_embedMYR n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_metronome n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_compressData n: 0 or 1
(default 1)
-mw_exportQuality n: 0 to 4
(default 2)
-mw_autoGroups n: 0 or 1
(default 0)
-mw_commands string


Slave Mode :

The "-signal" option allow to launch PDFtoMusic or PDFtoMusic PRO from an external program, called Father.
From the PDF file name provided (with a full path) a result file will be generated.
Additionnaly, an additional file will be created to inform the father about the computation status.
The parameter unique_id guaranteed multiple simultaneous tasks using PDFtoMusic as Son, will not collide.
Unique_id will determine the name of the additional file created. The path to this file will be -pathdest.
For example, if unique_id is "1962", PDFtoMusic will create a file "C2F_1962.txt" and log every step of the process. It is up to the caller to regularly scan the presence of this file and delete it immediately after reading.
It contains either :
- !DONE!=xxx to indicate that the processing is ended
xxx value can be:
0 Result file succesfully created
1 Document is password protected
2 Copy is not allowed
3 Can't extract text encoding
4 This is not a PDF file or the file is damaged
5 There is no exploitable music data in this file

-!PID! = xxxx, where xxxx is the PDFtoMusic PID
- The caption of the step

Amendments



No recognition algorithm can be 100% reliable. In the event you encounter translation errors, PDFtoMusic offers some tools to help you fix them.

Fonts
Symbols
Staves and systems


Fonts

PDFToMusic extracts character fonts from the PDF document, in order to "read" the music sheet. However, when a PDF document is created, fonts are not stored as is in the file, but transformed. First, to shrink the file size, only used characters are embedded.The name of the font is also often encoded. Moreover, no clue is provided that would enable PDFtoMusic to distinguish it without fail.

Some portions of text can be written with a default font (Times, Courier, ...), directly managed by the PDF format. In such cases, the font is not included in the PDF file and won't appear in the recognized font list.
 
In a first step, PDFtoMusic tries to extract a consistent font name, and searches for it in its known font name database. If the name is found, the font is considered as "forced, application". You can't change this status.

If the first step gets nowhere, PDFtoMusic applies dedicated algorithms to distinguish between text and music fonts. Fonts are then marked as "Text, auto", or "Music, auto". You can change this status through the "Correction > Fonts" menu option and, for instance, change a text font to music font. 

Tip: double-clicking a character on the PDF document opens this window with the matching font selected.

 
 
 
This change can be limited to the document or applied to all documents.
 
 
 
If limited to the document, only the current document will be affected by this change.
If applied to all documents, each time the font name will be found again in a PDF file, its state will be forced. Of course, this option has to be used wisely. You therefore create your own database of the fonts that are the most frequently found. 

To reset the font name bases, open this box with the Command key held down.
 
Please note that these changes can be stored in the PDF document, and kept from one use of this file to another, or if you send the document to another user.
In this last case, the font name database of the recipient won't be altered.
 
Once fonts have been marked as music or text, they are processed accordingly by PDFtoMusic.
 
Music fonts are optically analyzed, character by character, in order to guess the meaning of each of them.
 
For text fonts, the operation is a bit different. PDFtoMusic uses first the Unicode data from the PDF file. In most of the cases, the result is consistent. However, some PDF files don't provide accurate Unicode data. It's rather easy to realize: recognized text is completely different from the original one.

Here is for instance what you see in PDFtoMusic:




And once the result is loaded in a music notation software:



It is usually sufficient to correct this to uncheck "Unicode Compliant", unicode data will no longer be used.


You can also give full priority to Unicode by checking 'Strict Unicode '

PDFtoMusic offers also a solution to this problem by making "Text font, with optical recognition" editable. Once a font is marked as such, if it appears that there are errors in the default optical recognition (some characters are very close to each other: I and 1, O and 0, etc), you can remap the associated keystroke for any character. To do so, click on the character preview, and then press the key on your keyboard which you would like associated with that particular character symbol. From this point, the result of the recognition is changed.

The characters you modify appear in a different color on the preview.
Amendments to the recognition are stored in a database, so that when a strictly identical character is found later in another document, it will be amended automatically. PDFtoMusic "learns" in order to ease your work.

To input a Unicode character which can't be entered directly from your keyboard, like for instance, Greek or Hebrew, let the command key (Apple key on MacOS, Ctrl key on Windows) depressed, while entering the Unicode value of the character (in hexadecimal).
For instance, Command+0394 will define the capital greek delta.
A summary of Unicode values can be found here: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~tomw/java/unicode.html
 
Finally, some fonts don't include either music symbols or digits and letters, but graphics. Examples of this would be accordion register indicators, guitar chord diagrams, embellishments, etc.
In these cases, you can specify that the font has to be processed as graphics.
The miscellaneous characters of this font will then be considered to be graphics, and exported accordingly in the result file.



Once imported into Harmony Assistant, it gives:


Symbol correction

When moving the mouse pointer over a music symbol, its color changes:

 

 
Right-clicking opens the contextual menu related to this object.

   
 

In this menu, you can change the object settings. This is very useful, for example, when PDFtoMusic interprets a particular object incorrectly.
The red cross remove the object from the PDFtoMusic processing.
The green cross restore the object initial state.

To select several objects, apply a right click outside any object and define the area. All objects in this area will be selected.
To add several objects to the existing selection, do the same with Alt key pressed.
To remove several objects to the existing selection, do the same with Command key pressed.

You can select all objects from the Edit menu.

All change applied to a selected object will be applied to all selected objects with the same kind.




Staves and systems

A music score is made of several pages. Each page shows staff lines, joined in systems by a vertical line on the left.
There can be therefore several systems in each page.

When a performer doesn't play anything during several bars, the matching staff is often omitted in the system.
PDFtoMusic applies complex algorithms to "follow" staves from one system to another, and bring the parts together.
You can amend this result through "Correction > Staves and systems".



In this mode, the score is displayed in gray, while systems are shown as a blue vertical bar and numbered: S1, S2, etc.

Between each system, a glue tube enables you to merge systems.
Between each staff, a pair of scissors enables you to split the system.

Click the icon to apply the operation.

If you need to apply the same operation to the whole page, the whole document, or to the same place on all pages, right-click the icon and select the operation mode from the contextual menu.

Each part is marked with a letter, possibly followed by its name between brackets.
If you applied a change, the part name is displayed in green.
Clicking the blue arrow in the staff opens the contextual menu for relating the staff to the part:




- Automatic computation:
Cancels an applied change, so that the link between staff and part is computed by PDFtoMusic again.

- Exclude from computation:
The staff will be ignored. It enables you to remove a staff for computation, so that it isn't exported.

- Part list:
Choose in this list the part to which the staff has to be related.

- Create new part:
Creates a new part and relates the staff to it.

If the error you fix has occurred on all pages, right-clicking the staff name opens a contextual menu, enabling to apply the staves arrangement of the current page to all the other pages of the document.

The mixer


You can open the mixer from the Windows menu.

The mixer show the play state of the frontmost document.



For each part we found :
  1. The singer language (if the part has related lyrics). You can click on the flag to change it.
    Right click to change all languages.
  2. The current sound level. It can vary according to the general volume, the paning and the dynamics.
  3. The volume and the paning. You can change them.
  4. The octave shift.
  5. An icon to change the related instrument.
  6. An icon to mute the part. Right click mute all the other parts.
At window bottom :
  1. An icon to reset all values.
  2. Surround enabling.
  3. General volume.

Virtual Keyboard


Virtual keyboard can be opened from the Windows menu.


During music playback, played notes are highlighted.




  You can select:
  1. Which part matches left hand, which one is right hand
  2. Key color for left and right hand .
  3. Number of octaves to display.
  4. First octave to display.

Lyrics following


Lyrics following window is available from the "Windows" menu.

It displays lyrics from the miscellaneous staves of the frontmost score.




In the title, the document name, the index of the currently displayed staff with lyrics, and the total number of staves with lyrics in the document.

Then, the icon bar :

The two first icons move from page to page (staff).
Then, the display scale and reverse contrast display.
The lyrics text can be saved in an UTF-8 text file.
Last, an icon shows the detected lyrics language, that can be changed through a click.

A right-click on the icon bar enables to deactivate the icon name display.

During music playback, the currently sung syllable is highlighted.

Clicking a syllable shows it in the document.

Annotations


Annotations are graphic enrichments that can be added to PDF documents.
They are displayed over the PDF, with a customisable transparency level.
Original data in the PDF file are not altered, and you can easily toggle annotations on or off.

For example:



Editing

Annotation palette can be switched on from the Windows menu.

Annotation display can be deactivated from the Presentation menu.

To add an annotation, activate the "Add" mode in the annotation palette, then click on the document.
To modify an annotation, click it then change its settings in the palette.
To modify several annotations at the same time, click them whils keeping Shift key pressed.
To edit the text within the annotation, double-click or right-click it.

When an arrow is present, you can move the annotation but keep the arrow head in place by keeping the Shift key down while dragging.

Copying/Pasting

You can copy, cut and paste annotations from one page to another, or between documents. This is done either through the Edit menu, or by using the matching keyboard shortcuts.

To select all the annotations at once, use "Edit > Select all annotations".


Saving, loading, sharing


If you activated the "Store corrections and annotations in PDF file" mode in the global setup, "Document" topic, annotations will be saved within the PDF file itself, otherwise they will be stored in the "PDFtoMusic / Annotations" subfolder of your user documents folder.

Please note that if you intent to share an annotated PDF file with another user, the former mode is recommended. The recipient will have to view it using either PDFtoMusic or PDFtoMusic Pro to be able to see the annotations.

If the recipient doesn't own PDFtoMusic or PDFtoMusic Pro, you can:
  1. Export the document to "Multi-pages SVG" format ("File > Export" menu). The recipient will be able to view and print this file by using a Web browser.

  2. Export the document in Myriad Web format  ("File > Export" menu). If published on the Internet, everybody will be able to view, play or print the document along with its annotations.

Animating


Annotation opacity can change progressively according to the score playing status.
You define the annotation opacity at rest (when music is not playing), when playing, and when a given measure range is reached.
When there is break symbols you can define at what time the animating is launched.

Animation will occur with the selected opacity speed.

For instance, you can define an annotation that will only appear when a given position in the score is reached by the playing music.

Animations are available when the PDF is played from PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro, or when playng a Myrweb file in a Web browser.

Tips


Some graphical objects (highlighted background, roval surrounding, etc) are based on peudo-random values, that makes each object different from the others, but ensures an identical rendering on any computer. You can select a slightly different appearance for the obbject through the "right-click > Regenerate" option.


 


Virtual Singer

 

Introduction

Virtual Singer is an additional module for  PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro, but also our score editors Melody Assistant or Harmony Assistant and our player Melody Player.
Virtual Singer will make your computer sing: it will generate human voices for staves with lyrics.

Virtual Singer can be configured according to your needs, by modifying timbre, intonation, and kind of voice (man, woman, tenor, soprano, etc.).   Furthermore, several different voices, in different languages, will be able to sing at the same time.

Virtual Singer can also sing "La-La-La", follow the shaped-notes nomenclature (solmization), sing the note names, or even automatically generate Jazz Scat.

The current version of Virtual Singer includes the following languages: Northern French, Southern French, UK English, US English, Latin, Spanish, Italian, Finnish, German, Occitan, Japanese (Romaji), but also Bulgarian, Catalan, Slavon (liturgical slavic language), Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Basque (Euskadi), Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Romani (Gypsy), Romanian, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, Turkish and Vietnamese

Installation

Virtual Singer installs automatically along new versions of our programs, available on our web site: www.myriad-online.com.

License

During evaluation of the add-on, each time the application is launched, you will only be able to process a certain number of sung parts.  When this number is reached, Virtual Singer becomes "voiceless".
You can then either purchase a license for Virtual Singer (Order submenu) or quit the program and run it again to continue to try Virtual Singer.

 
 

Virtual Singer

Voice technical background Generalities


The human voice is amazingly complex, and the Virtual Singer software does not pretend to replace it, but only to approximate it as closely as possible. We will describe here the basic concepts required to better understand how Virtual Singer works.

A human voice can be characterized as follows:

These settings can be adjusted to approximate a given voice as closely as possible.

Voice
Singing follows the same rules as speaking. The same fundamental principles can be applied to both of them.

The lungs generate an air stream, which goes through the vocal chords.
Vocal chords are twin infoldings of mucous membrane, positioned at the base of the larynx, which act as a vibrator or "reed".
The vibration frequency is controlled by the singer in order to produce the required note pitch.
This original sound is then shaped by a set of cavities which form the vocal tract (mouth, nasal fossae...).
The singer controls the opening and capacity of these cavities to produce resonances, and in doing so, modifies the sound emitted by the vocal folds.

Speech and Language

Speech is an acoustic way of communication. It is a convention shared by people speaking the same language.
Each language has its own characteristics, and uses a limited number of sounds (about thirty) called "phonemes". These phonemes are then grouped to become a syllable, a word, a sentence...
Some phonemes are common to several languages, because most spoken languages come from the same origin. In addition, the range of possible phonemes is also limited by physical constraints of the vocal tract.

 
 

Virtual Singer

Voice technical background

Sung voice synthesis


In voice synthesis, for speech as well as for singing, three main methods can be used:

 
 

Virtual Singer

Voice synthesis settings

Virtual Singer palette


When Virtual Singer is installed, the Windows menu gives access to its palette.  The Virtual Singer palette shows the number of singers as well as the language used by each of them.

In the Virtual Singer palette, several objects represent the actions you can perform:

Activate and deactivate Virtual Singer: the colored light in the upper left corner shows the status of Virtual Singer. A click on the bulb toggles this status. When Virtual Singer is activated, staves with lyrics are sung.

When Virtual Singer is activated, a stage is displayed, on which each character represents a sung staff. Since our programs can manage several sung staves within a single document, there may be several characters on the stage.

Character location on the stage shows:

Under each character, the name of the related staff and a flag indicating its language are displayed. You can mix staves of different languages in the same document. We have already seen that is even possible to change languages within a single lyrics staff.

Double-clicking on the character opens the simple settings window. A right-click (Shift+click on the Macintosh) on the character opens a pop-up menu which allows you to:

A click on the flag allows you to change the singer's language.

Tuning the computing mode

To compute a sung staff, Virtual Singer creates an invisible digital audio track, and stores all the  voice data in it.
This computation is quite complex and may take a few tens of seconds.
The computing mode slider lets you select whether this work must be completed before the music starts (0% value) or whether a large part of this job can be performed while music is playing (100%).
This setting depends strongly on your computer. Select its value for optimal performance.

If the number of sung staves is too large or your computer is not fast enough, it won't have time to perform voice computation while the music is playing. You will hear breaks in the sung part. In that case, decrease the value of computing mode, to require that more of it be finished before the music begins to play.

In Harmony/Melody Assistant, when a Shape-note staff is included in a document, a little icon with the sharp symbol appears on the Virtual Singer palette. Click on this symbol to toggle whether accidentals are sung.

 

Virtual Singer

Voice synthesis settings

Basic settings


Double-clicking on the singer's icon in the Virtual Singer palette opens the pre-defined voice selection window. In this dialog box, you can select another voice from the list and apply an octave shift.


You can also define a new voice and save it in a file.

Send us by e-mail any interesting voices you create, and we'll make them available to other users.

Using "Edit timbre" and "Edit effects" buttons, this window also lets you access the advanced voice settings.

The octave shift lets you change the octave of the sung part without modifying the musical symbols on the staff.

The "Try" button makes the program sing a simple sentence with the selected voice.

The "Play/Stop" button starts to play the frontmost document with the selected voice.

The choir size slider lets you specify that the voice will actually be composed of several choir members singing in unison. A value of 1 means this voice is a soloist. To improve the effect produced by this kind of choir, you can apply a reverberation effect to the staff

 
 

Virtual Singer

Voice synthesis settings

Effects settings


To be able to control the advanced settings effectively, you should understand the concepts of phoneme and formant (refer to the chapters on Voice technical background). All of these parameters help to make the voice sound more natural.
 

 

Virtual Singer

Voice synthesis settings

Timbre settings


To be able to control the advanced settings effectively, you should understand the concepts of phoneme and formant (refer to the chapters on Voice technical background).
 

 This window allows you to modify the singer's voice timbre.

 

Virtual Singer

Editing Phonemes

 
    Very important: This chapter refers to advanced concepts of digital signal processing. Some knowledge of acoustics and digital signal processing will be needed to make use of it.

We saw earlier that phonemes are considered the basic acoustic elements for the spoken or sung voice (see the chapters on "Voice technical background").
Virtual Singer uses complex algorithms in order to synthesize these phonemes.
This kind of synthesis, called formants synthesis, uses original internal algorithms, inspired mainly by the writings of D. Klatt, as well as other informational sources.
The algorithm has been designed and refined following our own research into the reproduction of the sung voice.

While editing the voice timbre, an "Advanced" button opens the dialog box for defining the individual phonemes. Changes made in this window only modify the current singer's voice. Other voices will remain unchanged.

A few technical details


 
Question: How does Virtual Singer generate a phoneme?
An excitation digital signal (historically called a "glottal source") is generated, depending on the power and fundamental frequency of the phoneme to be sung. This signal is composed of a parabolic half-period, followed by a silent half-period (glottal stop). The first harmonic (the fundamental frequency),  the second harmonic (twice the fundamental frequency), and the thrid harmonic (triple the fundamental frequency) are then amplified, in order to approximate as nearly as possible the aural rendering of a sung vocal source. This source is then amplified to a greater or lesser degree, according to the voicing value.

Then the processing is divided into two parts:

Cascade processing: a noise, called aspiration noise, is added to the excitation source. This signal is then processed by a serial filter sequence (cascade), each filter corresponding to a formant.

Parallel processing: a noise, called frication noise, is added to the excitation source. The first order derivative of this signal is then processed by a parallel filter set, each filter corresponding to a formant. The amplitude of each formant is processed, in order to increase or decrease the respective influence of each formant in the output signal.

The results of the two processes listed above are then added, and modulated if necessary by a low-frequency (20 Hz) oscillator to simulate a rolling effect (as in Spanish "R"s).

After applying the output gain and treble/bass setting, the output signal is finally complete.

In concrete terms, this algorithm has major implications on how a phoneme is processed:

Fragments


The basic phonetic element is the phoneme. But we have seen that some complex phonemes, such as diphthongs, can be made up of several successive states.
Because of this, we must define the notion of a fragment, which represents a "static" state within a phoneme. Thus, a phoneme can be made of one or several fragments.

The list on the left of this window displays the complete list of all fragments needed to pronounce any phoneme in any language. Fragments displayed in bold are used by the current language.


Important Note: In this window, you can change the pronunciation of one or several fragments. These changes are only applied to the singer currently being edited. Modifying a fragment in this window will only alter pronunciation for this singer, not the others.

Once a fragment is modified, it is displayed in color in the list. When selecting a modified fragment, it is possible to retore its default values by clicking the Original button below the list.

In the right part of this window, several graphical objects allow you to modify the fragment data.

In the topmost part of the window, a pop-up menu shows the fragment type:
Vowel means this fragment can be stretched when the syllable it is included into is extended in time.
If the syllable does not include any vowels, Virtual Singer will try to stretch transitional vowel fragments.
In the absence of either of those two types, vocalized consonant fragments will be stretched, and then unvocalized consonants.

The fragment duration can be changed through a slider.
This value is the natural time for the fragment. If this fragment is stretched, its duration will be increased.

Note: When a value is changed graphically (through a slider, for example), its digital value appears in a frame on the bottom right of the window.

Static part of a fragment

These are the set of values used to define the static part of the fragment, i.e. the portion that is independent of any transitions to or from adjacent fragments. These parameters can be modified using the large graphical area in the right part of the window.

Formants are displayed as triangles of colored lines. For each formant, the center frequency (in Hertz), Amplitude (dB) and bandwidth (width of the triangle's base, in Hz) can be changed. A set of checkboxes below this graphic allows you to activate or deactivate each formant in the parallel part of the voice generator.

Note: As explained above, even if a formant is deactivated, and is no longer displayed on the graphics, its frequency and bandwidth are still used in the cascade part of the voice generator.
On the right, a set of vertical sliders alows you to change the levels of voicing (av), rolling (Rl), aspiration (asp) and frication (af).
 

Tip: While editing a formant middle frequency or bandwidth graphically, two vertical lines are displayed. They show the upper and lower bounds for the parameter being modified, for that formant, among all the phonemes in the list. This helps you avoid setting the parameter to too "exotic" a value.
 

Fragment transition curves

During a spoken or sung part, the transition from one fragment to another is not instantaneous: the next fragment starts to be said before the previous one is completely finished. This smooth transition between fragments is called coarticulation.

For each parameter (formant frequency, amplitude, bandwidth and various levels), the graphic area on the bottom of the window lets you define its transition curve over time. The parameter whose curve is displayed is circled in red in the upper area.

On the transition curve, by convention, the previous value of the parameter is represented by the lowest value on the graph's vertical axis. The static value for the currently selected fragment (selected in the upper graphics) is represented by the highest value on the axis.

Note: this is a schematic display, not directly related to the effective or relative values of the parameter described.

The parameter's transition from its previous value to the current static value is displayed as two segments:
The first segment on the left, whose duration is "stolen" from the previous fragment's time. This segment will make the parameter evolve from the previous fragment's static value to an intermediate value, defined by the two vertical sliders to the left of the curve.
The ratio slider (Ra) lets you select the importance of the previous parameter value relative to that of the current fragment's static value (the value to be reached during the transition).
For example: a 0% ratio sets the intermediate value to the value to be reached.

A 100% ratio sets the intermediate value to the previous parameter value.
A 50% ratio sets the intermediate value to the average of the previous and current values.

The starting offset (Od) allows you to add a fixed amount to the intermediate value.

For example: with a ratio (Ra) of 50%, and an offset (Od) of 100, intermediate value is equal to 100 + the average of the previous and current values.

On the curve, the second segment gives the transition time between the intermediate value and the value to be reached (the static value of this parameter for the current fragment). This time is "stolen" from the current fragment.

Symmetrically, the two segments on the right, with a corresponding pair of sliders, allow you to define the transition from the current static value to the static value of the next fragment.

Thus a transition curve can be defined from the previous fragment's static value, as well as to the next fragment's static value.

Which transition curve segments are used depends on which fragment has a higher priority.  If the current fragment has a higher priority than the previous one, its "transition from previous" segments will be used, instead of the previous fragment's "transition to next" segments. Priority is given by the order of the fragment in the fragment list: the higher in the list, the greater the priority.

Example:
If the list only includes three fragments, "a, b, c" in that order, and the syllable to be sung is "babc", the following transitions will be made for each fragment parameter:

Action buttons

These buttons, located in the bottom-right corner of the window, perform several actions:

Try button

You can try the modified fragment by typing a simple sentence in the corresponding frame, then clicking the button. Then, a list of fragments used to pronounce the sentence is displayed. The symbols > and < between the fragment names give the relative priority of each fragment compared to the adjacent ones.
Note: whenever you select a fragment in the fragment list, a sample word for that fragment will be inserted in the text area.
Language pop-up menu
When another language has been selected, fragments used in that language appear in bold in the fragment list.
Copy/Paste buttons
These buttons allow you to copy all of the parameters and transition curves of a fragment, in order to paste them on another fragment.

RealSinger

Introduction

What is RealSinger?


RealSinger is a Virtual Singer extension that allows you to use more realistic voices to sing lyrics.
The method for generating synthesized voices is different from that used by the regular Virtual Singer.

Virtual Singer's voice generation algorithms, as described in the Technical background chapter, use
completely artificial voices, produced with the Formant synthesis method.

RealSinger algorithms are based on recordings of real human voice elements. These voice samples are then processed to extract the voicing parameters for each phoneme. This unique process enables us to get around the biggest problem with the usual Recorded elements connection method: by keeping only the voicing information, data files for describing and storing a voice are extremely short (usually less than 1 Mb for a full voice in one language), and the voice can be re-synthesized at any pitch without noticeable distortion.

How does it work?

To be able to sing using a new voice, RealSinger needs a recorded sample of each phoneme of a given language, spoken (or sung) by the same speaker (or singer). It then processes all these sound samples and extracts the voicing parameters for each phoneme. The voicing parameter data can then be either embedded in the document file itself, or saved into a separate file to be re-used later in another piece.

To generate a voice following the lyrics and melody, specialized algorithms are used to process pitch changes and to simulate coarticulation (smooth transitions between two consecutive phonemes).

How do I use RealSinger voices?

RealSinger voices are selected in the same way as regular Virtual Singer voices. They are marked by an RS icon in the voice list.

Simply select one of these voices in the voice list to have a staff sung by RealSinger.

For more information about how to have a staff sung by Virtual Singer or RealSinger, please read the appropriate chapters.

You can record your own voice to build a new RealSinger voice file. The following chapters explain how to record, and how to adjust settings for this new voice.

RealSinger provides more realistic sung voices, but the computing time is longer, and the voices can be less versatile (best within a smaller pitch range). Therefore, it is generally best to use a standard Virtual Singer voice while creating a sung piece, and only select and adjust the RealSinger voice at the very end, once the piece is completed.

RealSinger

Your First Real Singer Voice


To learn how Real Singer works, let's quickly create a new Real Singer voice, for Latin songs. Why Latin? This language has few distinct sounds, so you'll be able to record quickly. Also, there are a number of public-domain Latin hymns that you can use to test the voice.

What you need

You must be able to record your own voice to your computer's hard drive. The simplest (not necessarily best) method is to use a microphone of the kind designed to connect directly to your computer's sound card input. However, microphones for professional audio usually must be pre-amplified before your sound card can record the signal. Or, you can use an external recording device, and send its line-out or headphone signal (never the loudspeaker signal!) to your computer's sound card line-in. You can even do the recording with another computer, then transfer the digital audio files. But for now, we will assume that you are recording your live voice directly to your computer.

Let's record!

When you are ready to record, find a quiet area at a quiet time.

- On Melody/Harmony: create a new, very simple document with just one staff. To the left of the staff is a set of icons, shown here. Click the black triangle to open the staff-specific menu, and choose "staff with lyrics." If the Virtual Singer stage does not open automatically,

- On PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro: load a PDF file that includes lyrics in latin, e.g. "Ave Maria" in the "PDFtoMusicDemos" folder

Then select the Virtual Singer palette in the "Windows" menu.

The Virtual Singer palette is a stage, shown here in reduced size. Standing on the stage is the picture of your singer, and underneath his picture is a question mark. Click the question mark, and choose "Latin" from the available languages. The question mark changes to an icon. Then double-click the singer. In a few moments, a dialog box appears. Click "Real Singer".

A new dialog box appears. Since you will be recording live, click "record." Be quiet while Real Singer measures the background noise. If it is too loud, try again. After Real Singer measures the backgrund noise, it asks you to say "aah" for several seconds. It is measuring your natural speaking pitch, so that you can listen to sample words at that pitch.

If Real Singer insists that there is too much noise, but you don't know why, possible solutions are discussed in advanced recording techniques. For now, you can bypass thee noise measurement by choosing "set" instead of "record." If you do that, then the next dialog box allows you to manually choose the frequency at which words will be presented. A range of 90-130Hz is comfortable for most men, double that for most women.

The Real Singer recording palette will appear. At the left are a list of words that you must record. Real Singer will offer you the words in order, unless you un-check the "automatic" box. You can save an audio file of each recorded word by checking that option. At top is the current word. If you wish to hear it without recording, click "listen to the word." When you wish to record the word, click "get." Real Singer will play the word, then you will repeat it. Try to imitate what you hear. If your voice is too loud or too soft, get the word again.

If your voice is OK, Real Singer will process the sound and identify the phoneme. The first Latin word is "quid," and Real Singer is looking for a drawn-out "u" sound. At the right is a reduced-scale image showing what Real Singer found for a sample recording. The bright area in the middle is the identified sound. The dark curtains at left and right block off the "q-" and "-id" portions.

The vowel corresponding to English "ee" sound is unusual. In Latin (and in some other languages), Real Singer uses the word "si" for this phoneme. In English, it appears in the word "ease." Many speakers pronounce this vowel with the lips horizontal, as if they are smiling. But good singers produce the vowel with the lips rounded, as they do for other vowels. If you can, record the "ee" sound with rounded, pursed lips, similar to the German u-umlaut. If you record the "ee" sound with a smiling face, it will sound shrill when sung at higher pitches.

Sometimes, Real Singer cannot find the phoneme, or locates it incorrectly. You can move the "curtains" by dragging them with the mouse cursor. You can play back the whole recorded word, or just the selected portion. It is important to choose phonemes carefully - these are the building blocks used to construct all other words!
More information about how to adjust the selection range is found in the "Adjusting phoneme selection range" chapter.
When you are satisfied, click "validate" to add the processed phoneme to the Real Singer voice.

After you validate a word, its appearance on the word list changes. You know which words you have validated, and which ones remain. If you are not using automatic recording, you can choose words in any order, or re-record words that have already been validated. If necessary, you can save incomplete results, and finish the list at some other time. You can even leave some words un-recorded, and Real Singer will use synthesized sound from the Virtual Singer database as substitutes (not recommended). For best sound quality, you should record all of the words, in a single session, so that your own voice is consistent from one word to another. After you have finished recording your voice, close Real Singer to return to the Virtual Singer dialog box.

By default, Virtual Singer asumes that your voice is male, and that you will use it for notes on the Treble staff. Therefore the sound will play one octave lower than the notes are written. If you are female, or if you are going to use this voice on the Bass staff or with Treble-8vb, then set the octave shift to zero. You can also change the singer's stage appearance, if you wish.

While the Virtual Singer dialog box is open, click "Add To List" Give your voice a name and save it. Then move it in the Real Singer Latin voices folder that you created by right-click. This name identifies the voice file, not the character shown on stage. The saved voice file can be used by any singer of the same language, in any other documents. The stage character always has the name of the staff he sings, rather than the name of the voice file he uses.

Click OK to close the Virtual Singer dialog box. You are now back in your music document, with the stage still showing. Save your document, even though it does not have any music.

Using your new Real Singer voice

Open the sample Latin song "Exsultate" in "VirtualSinger/Demos/Latin" subfolder. There are two singers, "Ron Real" and "Vic Virtual." Double-click the image of "Ron" to open Virtual Singer. Ron starts as the default male Virtual Singer, but you will change his voice. In the menu of voices, find the Real Singer voice file that you just created (remember, you put it in the Latin folder). Virtual Singer may tell you that this change will lose the previous setup. Confirm, then click OK to return to the stage.

"Vic" sings with the default male Virtual Singer voice. Leave "Vic" that way, unless you are female and want "Vic" to sing with a female voice. If so, double-click "Vic," and select "Soprano." This voice is not in the Latin folder, but Virtual Singer is multi-lingual. Confirm the change of setup, and click OK to return to the Virtual Singer stage and music.

Save the file (save as) with a different name. Now, play the music. Real Singer must pre-calculate the voices, so there will be a delay. "Ron" and "Vic" will sing together in harmony, with "Ron" the higher voice. You can mute one voice or the other, if you wish.

Most likely, your "Ron" voice is rough. Double-click "Ron" to open Virtual Singer, then click "Edit voice." A new dialog box appears. Under "timbre," choose a value near 30 for each of glottal and opening. Re-play it, and hear the difference in "Ron's" voice.

If you save the music, it will retain the changes made to "Ron" for this music only, without changing the voice file you recorded. If you want the changed voice to be available to other music, within Virtual Singer you can "save preset" to a new voice file. Don't try to use "Ron" to sing English, or any language other than Latin. He doesn't understand it, because you did not record most of the phonemes needed to make words in another language.


When you play your Real Singer voice, you may notice that some phonemes are too loud, or too soft, relative to the others. If a phoneme is not consistent with others, you will hear the same problem each time the phoneme is used. To fix this problem, open the Virtual Singer palette, double-click on the singer, and choose "edit voice," then the "advanced" tab. Choose "edit phonemes." Find the offending phoneme in the list at the left, and select it. On the right you will see several vertical sliding controls. The rightmost two control the phoneme volume at start and peak. Move these up or down, as needed. Play your music again. When you are satisfied with the relative volume of the phonemes, save the voice preset. There are numerous other phoneme adjustments available.

Congratulations on creating your first Real Singer voice! The rest of this Real Singer documentation describes ways to improve your voice recording, ways to improve the precision of the voice fragments, and ways to use Real Singer adjustments to improve the recorded voice.

RealSinger

Adjusting phoneme selection range


After you record each word, the program tries to locate a particular phoneme in this word (the one written in capitals in the sample word), and to remove the rest of the word. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes not. You can keep the program selection as it is, or find your own. Sometimes your ear is better than the program's mathematical analysis, so it is recommended that you find your own selection range in the recorded sample, even if the computed result appears correct.

Below is a list of the various kinds of phonemes you might be asked to record, and what area the program expects to be selected before validating.

Obturation


When saying a voiced plosive consonant (G, B, D), just before this consonant is spoken, the mouth shuts completely, and the voice sound is muffled during a short period of time. But this period is not completely silent: while the mouth is closed, air continues to go out from the lungs and the vocal chords continue to vibrate. Air pressure increases in the closed mouth until the lips open again, and the consonant is emitted with a strong power (which is why these phonemes are called plosives).

Obturation is the portion spoken with a closed mouth that you can view on the sound graph: a soft period surrounded by stronger phonemes.

Note for German:

In German, voiced plosive consonants cannot be located at the end of a word: they are said as their unvoiced equivalent (G->K, B->P, D->T).
However, here you will need to pronounce a voiced consonant at the end of the word. To make it easier, imagine that there is a very short vowel after the plosive. For example, if you are asked to record a syllable written "caB", pronounce it as "caB(e)" with a very short ending "e".


Transitional vowels (trans)


Usually these vowels are used only in a short form (never elongated). You will have to pronounce the target word a little bit differently than in "real life," and elongate these vowels. When setting the selection range bounds, be careful to hear only this vowel, not the one that follows.

"Static" vowels


These are called "static" because their phonetic value does not vary over time when pronounced.
You can select only a short portion of the vowel if you wish. Select a section in which the timbre you hear seems correct, and the pitch and power variation is not too significant. The shorter the section you select, the smaller the resulting voice file will be.

Note for German:

In German, there are "long" and "short" versions of vowels. However, in order to enable the software to analyze enough data for "short" vowels, you will have to prolong these vowels at least half a second, even if that is not how they are supposed to sound in German.


Diphthong first part (diphth) - Only in English -


A diphthong is a vowel that changes over time when pronounced. You will have here to prolong the first part of the diphthong and make it sound like a static vowel. Select a portion of this static sound.

 

Full diphthong (full dipht.)  - Only in English -


Here, you will have to record the full diphthong, spoken quite briefly. Be careful not to drop the volume or pitch down at the end of  the diphthong (imagine you have to say another word just after this one). You must select the whole diphthong. Articulate well but do not prolong the sound too much, or the resulting voice file size will increase...

Stretchable consonants


These consonants can be stretched. (M,N,L,S,F...).  Imitate the sample, and as for the static vowels, select a portion in which the volume stays more or less constant.

Plosive unvoiced consonants (T,P,K)


These consonants are preceded by a short period of "glottal stop," a silent phase. Emphasize the consonant itself and make it sound louder than it should be in normal speech. Then adjust the selection range so that it starts just after the glottal stop, and ends after the consonant and its aspiration noise are finished.
 

Plosive voiced consonants (D,B,G)


These consonants are preceded by a short period of "obturation" (see above). Emphasize the consonant itself and make it sound louder that it should be in normal speech. Then adjust the selection range so that it starts just after the glottal stop, and ends after the consonant and its aspiration noise are finished. See the special note for German users in the "Obturation" topic.

Aspiration (hhh)


This is the sound when the singer recovers his breath. Breathe in quite quickly (less than 1 second) without any lip sound: open your mouth before starting recording, then breathe in as if you were surprised. Adjust the selection range so that it includes the whole sound (with a brief period of silence after the sound).

RealSinger

Factors to be considered when

recording for Real Singer


Noise factors

Environmental noise

If a passing noise interferes with your recording, simply re-record it. If you have companions, suggest that they go elsewhere, since their small movements may escape your attention but still be heard in the recording. Yes, your friend sitting behind you is giggling while you are trying to record...

A.C. hum

Depending on your country, alternating current (AC) hum has a frequency of 60Hz or 50Hz, with overtones throughout the vocal range, particularly at 180Hz (150Hz). At right is the spectrum of AC hum from a noisy setup. It is very important to reduce AC hum, since it is difficult to remove this noise without distorting your voice.

If you use a laptop computer, the simplest way to reduce AC hum is to use battery power, and have no peripheral devices connected. If you do use peripherals, the cables should be disconnected at the computer when power is off, not left dangling from the computer.

When a preamplifier (or tape deck) and a computer are connected, and when both of them use AC power, the amount of hum depends on how the power cords are plugged in. The loudest hum is produced when the two devices are plugged into different wall sockets. If one device has an AC auxiliary outlet, plug the second device into it, rather than to the wall. Or, plug both devices into a single extension cord. If the power plugs are not polarized (that is, if they can be inserted into the outlet with prongs reversed), try reversing the prongs.

Some microphones will pick up a lot of AC hum when you touch them. If that happens, mount the mike on an insulating stand, instead of holding it. If you do not have a mike stand, try taping the mike to a wooden stick, held vertical by taping it to the back of a chair. Pay careful attention to this. Just because a microphone can be held in the hand, does not mean that it should be held. If you use a headset microphone, see if AC hum is reduced when you remove the headset.

Be sure that your microphone cable does not run near any power cords. There may be power lines underneath your floor, so try moving the microphone cable. The same applies to the cord between computer and preamp or tape deck, if you are using one. It is especially important to stay away from motor-driven devices, including ceiling fans.

Machine sounds

If you see a noise spectrum like the one above, but the fundamental frequency of your AC is not the first peak, then the source of noise is probably a motor-driven appliance. Machine sounds are common. You have learned to ignore your refrigerator, heating, ventilation, computer fans, and ticking clocks. But if they are present, they will be included in your voice recording. Consider turning off machines - but don't forget to turn them back on again! If you have a lot of noise distributed evenly across the spectrum, it may be caused by air rushing through a ventilation system.

System noise

Some noise is caused by the electrical properties of your system. If this noise is small, Real Singer can analyze it and reduce its effect. But if the system noise is too large, you will have to try a different recording method.

If your computer's sound card is poor, it will detect electrical noise from the surrounding circuitry and include it in your recording. This is especially true if you are using a microphone connected directly to the computer's microphone input. If you have eliminated all other possible noise sources and still have too much unexplained noise, this may be the culprit. Try recording your voice to a tape deck, or using a pre-amplifier, so that you can feed the preamp line-out to your computer's sound card line-in, instead of to the microphone jack. Remember that external recording equipment usually requires a different kind of microphone than the kind used directly by computers.

If you are using a tape deck, it is better to use high-bias or metal tapes and noise reduction. Do not use automatic gain control. Do not use a microphone "built in" to the recorder.

Sound quality factors

Equalization

The human voice contains important frequency components across a broad range. The fundamental pitch of sung notes is below 500Hz (even lower for the male voice), with important overtones at higher frequencies. The range around 2-6KHz contains frequencies that add color and definition to the voice, especially during some consonants and transitions.

Be sure that your microphone has a smooth frequency response across this spectrum. If the mike is normally sensitive only to low frequencies, but has an artificial boost for the highest frequencies, then your recorded voice will sound too bright. Some computer mikes intended for speech recognition (conversion of words to text) may have such an artificial frequency response. But as long as the mike responds adequately across the vocal range, it is not necessary to have a level (flat) frequency response, since Real Singer includes an equalizer.

Saturation and clipping

Saturation and clipping occur when an input signal is too large. This can occur at the microphone, or at any stage of signal processing.

If your voice is too loud, the microphone will distort the sound, even if the electrical output from the mike is within the acceptable range. Computer microphones often have a low dynamic range, meaning that there is not much difference between the softest sounds they can detect above the noise, and the loudest sounds they can accept without distortion. When recording to Real Singer, it is important to keep your voice at uniform loudness. This is especially true if you are using a computer microphone.

Professional audio microphones have a much greater range of loudness that they can accept without distortion. But the range of electrical signals produced is also large. This kind of microphone is used with a preamplifier (or tape deck, acting as preamp). Be sure to pay attention to the VU or other signal amplitude meter. It is OK to briefly exceed a limit if the sound is in an unimportant part of a word, far from the phoneme that you are trying to validate.

Do not use automatic gain control (AGC) for recording to Real Singer. The distortions introduced by AGC are likely to be greater than the distortions removed. It is better to move away from the microphone, or manually adjust volume controls. Portable tape recorders, and office-style voice recorders, usually use AGC. Avoid using these devices, if you can.

If you are transferring a signal into your computer from a preamp or tape deck, be sure to use the correct jacks. Never take a signal from a jack intended to directly drive loudspeakers. The best connection is line-out to line-in.

If you are using an audio editor to apply digital filters to a pre-recorded waveform, be sure that the filter does not clip your sound.

Special problems

Difficult sounds

Some consonants are difficult to record, because they are soft and create a lot of breath wind. In English, these are f, h, s, and th (thin). You will need to place your mouth close to the microphone, but not allow the breath wind to touch it. It helps to feel the air stream coming from your mouth when you make these sounds, to ensure that the mike is correctly placed.

Some other consonants are difficult to record, because they are abrupt. In English, these are b, d, hard g (go), k, and p. These sounds have a moment of high intensity that quickly tapers to a short sound. If spoken too loudly, the intense part will saturate or clip. If spoken too softly, the tapered part will not be detected. Or, if you naturally speak these consonants softly, Real Singer may decide that your voice is "too loud" based on the part of the recorded word leading up to the consonant. Resist the temptation to speak these in an un-natural manner, to "help" Real Singer find them. If you do that, Real Singer will find an un-natural sound!

If you are having difficulty producing a satisfactory recording of these consonants, or if you would generally like to change what Real Singer hears from you, then pre-record your voice and use an audio editor. You can reduce the amplitude of an unnecessary part of a word that is "too loud," so that a necessary, softer part can be accepted. But it is usually not advisable to edit the volume in the portion of sound that contains the desired phoneme, because that will interfere with noise-removal processing.

Using an audio editor

An audio editor is a program that will open an audio file, change its contents, and export the result to a new audio file. One such program is the free Audacity (Windows or Macintosh) available from sourceforge.net. In addition to opening and exporting WAV files, it can open and export Vorbis OGG files. These files can be used by Real Singer in place of a live voice.

With an audio editor, you can: (1) Import a lengthy recording or several words, and slice it into individual words. (2) Adjust the volume or equalization. (3) Inspect sounds for the presence of sudden noise events. (4) Apply special effects (not recommended for Real Singer).

With an audio editor, you can help find sources of noise by looking at noise amplitude and spectra. The most valuable use is to inspect the recording waveforms for the presence of saturation and clipping. For this reason, it is a good idea to pre-test your method of recording, inspect its results with an audio editor, and make any necessary changes to your setup. Then Real Singer will have good quality sound to use for your voice.

Saturation occurs when an increase in sound power produces less than the proportional increase in recorded signal power. Saturation is often desirable; it is certainly better than clipping. But in Real Singer, it is better to avoid saturation, because the recorded tone will be used in soft and loud passages. If you look at sample recordings of your voice with an audio editor, and see that the recorded amplitude is always about the same during both loud and soft parts of your speech, then you may have saturation. (Or, you may be a master at keeping your voice at an even level!) Try recording at lower volume, or move the microphone slightly farther from your mouth. Be sure that automatic gain control is not in use. Avoid saturation in, or near, any part of the word that will be used for the phoneme.

At right are some images (at reduced size) from an audio editor. The top image shows a waveform that has been properly recorded. Even though Virtual Singer plays a sample word with very uniform amplitude, the live human voice varies in amplitude. These irregularities can be seen in the envelope of the waveform.

The second image is the same sound, recorded with saturation. Notice how the irregularities of the envelope have been smoothed. Examining the spectra would show that certain frequencies are more prominent in the the waveform with saturation than in the unsaturated wave.

The third image shows clipping, in this case caused by too large an electrical signal at the sound card input. Notice how the envelope has been flattened (flattening may be symmetrical or asymmetrical).

The fourth image also shows clipping, even though the recorded waveform has lower amplitude than before. In this case, the clipping occurred at the microphone, because the sound was too loud. The electrical signal was reduced by the sound card volume control. However, once a wave is clipped, it cannot be un-clipped.


At left is a composite image of two spectra, for the same word recorded by two different microphones. Areas of concern are marked with an asterisk. One of the microphones (purple spectrum) shows excessive response in the second overtone (third harmonic), which is one characteristic of saturation. Also, that microphone shows excessive response in the high frequency range - probably due to artificial enhancement - which makes the sound bright and harsh. This microphone was intended for computer speech recognition.

The other microphone was a pre-amplified dynamic type, normally used for audio recording. It had a more satisfactory sound quality (green spectrum).

RealSinger

Adjusting phonemes


Once all the phonemes have been recorded, you can play the sample tune.

Some phonemes will almost certainly not be what you expected, and will need adjustment.

How to find a bad phoneme

Adjusting a phoneme


Several problems can make a phoneme sound wrong.

If the phoneme timbre (tone or sound) does not match the expected result, we recommend that you record it again, by selecting the phoneme in the list on the left, then clicking Record.

If the problem comes from the phoneme power (volume), i.e. the phoneme is ttoo soft or too loud in the sample word, there is no need to record it again. You can adjust the starting and ending power using the Vst (volume start) and VMa (volume maximum) sliders on the left of the phoneme spectrum display.

Other adjustments can also be performed, but they require a deeper knowledge of the internal operation of RealSinger.  Therefore, they are reserved to experienced users:

Two sliders control the coarticulation time:
Dtd is the transition duration from the previous phoneme
Dtf is the transition duration to the next phoneme

RealSinger

Technical background



Note: This page is only a brief overview of the methods used by RealSinger to produce a voice.
It is not necessary to read this chapter to use RealSinger. This chapter is indended to answer technical questions some users might have about the internal algorithms, and is not needed to use the product.

Introduction

To synthesize a realistic singing voice, the first idea that comes to the mind of the programmer is to use a collection of recorded phonemes to generate the voice.

Three problems quickly become apparent:

  1. The algorithm used must be able to generate the phoneme at any pitch (fundamental frequency). Recording every phoneme at all possible pitches is not feasible, because it would lead to a long and complex recording process, as well as huge voice files.
  2. The algorithm must be able to elongate, or stretch, the phoneme to any duration.
  3. The algorithm must be able to generate a smooth transition from one phoneme to another, in order to simulate the coarticulation phenomenon (the next phoneme starts to be heard before the current one is completely terminated).
A solution can be found for each of these problems in the published computer literature.

Efficient algorithms have been developed to solve problems 1 and 2. They process the recorded sample's digital data directly, allowing the programmer to change its frequency (pitch) as well as its duration. These algorithms are used in most popular sound editors to change the pitch and speed of a sound file independently. They are also used successfully in speech synthesis, because speech frequency (pitch) variations are quite small.
However, in the case of the sung voice, these algorithms cannot be used, because they are not efficient when the pitch shift is too large. The result is not "wrong" as such, but the voice is distorted, just as when playing a magnetic tape at too high a speed (chipmunk voice).

For problem 3, a common solution is to record not only the individual phonemes of a language, but all possible combinations of two or three phonemes (diphonemes/triphonemes). This system stores the coarticulation effect and makes the synthesized voice more realistic. However, here again, the recording process is quite difficult and extensive, sometimes requiring several hours of work for the speaker or singer. The resulting voice file is often quite large (several megabytes).

RealSinger uses original algorithms to solve all three of these problems at the same time, by manipulating frequency spectra.
Some speech synthesizers have tried to use voice frequency spectra to generate voice in the past.
However, this method proved to be difficult to implement, because recreating a signal from a processed spectrum using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) requires that the "phase" values be reajusted properly.  If they are not properly adjusted, consecutive pieces of signal won't join and an unwanted background noise will be heard.

Voice spectrum

In speech or song, the glottal source waveform (the sound produced by vocal chords when excited by the air stream from the lungs) is a combination of harmonics (frequency multiples of the fundamental frequency f0).

On a power/frequency graph, this glottal source sound looks like a comb, with each tooth of the comb located at a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental f0:

When the voice pitch increases, the fundamental frequency f0 shifts to the right (higher frequency), and the frequency offset between two consecutive harmonics increases too, to remain equal to f0.

In passing through the vocal tract, some frequencies are enhanced by cavity resonances, and others are softened. The result is that certain harmonics are loud, and others are softer. This vocal tract spectrum depends on the phoneme being said or sung, and is more or less unchanged when frequency (pitch) increases or decreases.
The convolution of these two spectra (glottal source and vocal tract) gives the resulting spectrum, in which the listener can determine both the phoneme (what is said) and the pitch (sung note).

RealSinger basics

The aim of RealSinger is, for each phoneme of a given language, to apply a deconvolution to the recorded signal in order to separate the glottal source and vocal tract spectra. Then it stores only the vocal tract spectrum, and will apply a generated glottal source to this spectrum to simulate the original recorded phoneme being sung at any pitch.

Learning process

This algorithm enables RealSinger to store only a few values for each phoneme, which means very short voice files (less than 40 Kb once compressed).

Generating the voice

This algorithm simulates coarticulation effects. Therefore it is not necessary to record the whole set of diphonemes or triphonemes. Only pure phonemes are required.

 

Myriad HQ

Myriad HQ logo design by Gaël Martin


Myriad HQ is an additional module for our music products. It brings an enhanced audio quality, new option for digital output, and high-quality sounds, generated by external plug-ins (VSTi) or by "MyrSynth-Guitar", our pinched string instrument generator


Trial vs registered version


The Myriad HQ module can be used free of charge in trial mode. All its features are then functional, but the module disables itself after some time in the session.
To continue trying it, you just have to quit the program then run it again.

If you are convinced by the tryout, you can then purchase a license for 30 euros (or US$37). You'll receive a personal registration code that unlocks the Myriad HQ limitations.

To disable Myriad HQ use "Configuration>Myriad HQ>Enabled"


Control Panel


To activate or deactivate each component of Myriad HQ, open its palette in the "Windows" menu.
In this palette, a set of buttons will let you switch each component on or off:

- The "General" button activate or deactivate all the components at once
- "Digital high definition": hi-quality output and export
- "High definition post-processing": improve d score sound post-processing
- "Multi-channel output": to manage more than 2 loudspeakers (5.1, 7.1, etc)
- "MyrSynth-Guitar instruments": Sounds for guitars and other pinched string instruments
- "External instrument modules": use of VSTi plug-ins

 

Myriad HQ

Digital High-Definition
Myriad HQ logo design by Gaël Martin


To store a sound digitally, the computer gets the value of air pressure on the microphone membrane, thousands of times per seconds. This list of values (samples) makes the digital sound, that can be stored, processed by mathematical operations, or replayed by the reverse process.

Quality of a digital sound is therefore defined by two values:

- Its sample rate, which is the number of samples per second

- The sample "depth", in bits, which is the accuracy of  each value, the number of different values each sample can take

The "Audio CD" quality is: 44100 Hz sample rate (44100 samples per second) in 16 bits, i.e. 2^16 = 65536 possible values.
Our products manage this quality without the Myriad HQ module.

With the Myriad HQ module, it's possible to use up to:

- 96000 Hz sample rate, more that the double, for a finer mesh, thus better high-pitched sounds, a better sound dynamic, and a decrease of noise ratio.

- 32 bits deep samples, 65000 times more accurate than an audio CD, to avoid metallic tones (aliasing) and get a better accuracy in quite sounds

These quality improvements can be applied to:

- The digital output, on which you listen to your score

- Uncompressed digital export (WAV) to process your audio data in another application

- Digital input from microphone or line in

- Digital tracks in your document, that can be mixed together of with regular music staves

Please be careful however, data in top quality are 4.35 times bigger than classic data
 

 

Myriad HQ

Multichannel output
Myriad HQ logo design by Gaël Martin


Audio output channels represent the loudspeaker on which sound is played.

A single loudspeaker (one channel) is a mono output

Two loudspeakers (two channels) is a stereo output. The sound, different on the right and on the left, enables the listener to locate the sound position from right to left

More channels can make the sound surround the listener, or make enhance basses
In Myriad HQ, you can select up to 8 channels for the sound output.

This is set up through "Configuration > Digital output configuration"

In instrument settings, in addition to the stereo position, a "fader" button appears, letting you select the instrument position on the front/back axis.

Here are the diagrams for the most common channel configuration. Please note that Myriad HQ goes even further, by enabling to define a custom set of loudspeaker, thus a setup that doesn't appear in this list.

1 channel


1.0 : Mono
 

2 channels


2.0: Stereo
 

3 channels

2.1 : Stereo + subwoofer



3.0 : stereo


3.0 : Surround


4 channels

3.1 : Stereo+subwoofer


3.1 : Surround + subwoofer


4.0 : Quadriphonic 


4.0 : Surround



5 channels

4.1 : Quadriphonic + subwoofer



4.1 : Surround + subwoofer



5.0 : "rear"

6 channels

5.1 : "rear" + subwoofer



5.1 : "side" + subwoofer

6.0 : "rear"


7 channels

6.1 : "rear" + subwoofer



6.1 : "side" + subwoofer


7.0



8 channels

7.1



 

Myriad HQ

Digital post-processing
Myriad HQ logo design by Gaël Martin

Some digital effects can be applied to your score sound, just before its data are sent to the loudspeakers, the headphone or exported as a digital audio file.

These digital effects can be set up from "Score > Global digital effects", and are improved by the Myriad HD module.

Currently, a multi-band equalizer will let you finely adjust the final sound output, by amplifying or dampening some frequency ranges.

 

 

Myriad HQ

Myrsynth - Guitar

Myriad HQ logo design by Gaël Martin

What is it?


Myrsynth-Guitar is part of the Myriad HQ module. It's a physical synthesis of pinched string instruments.

Unlike a sound base, in which recordings of a real instrument playing notes at different pitches are reassembled to play the score, physical synthesis calculate the sound data depending on the instrument physical parameters and the performer technique.

A digital equivalent of the physical instrument (body, strings) is built in memory, then the virtual strings are pinched and the vibrations transmitted to the miscellaneous elements through mathematic formulas. The result of these calculations is then picked up by virtual microphones, and the sound can be heard.

What instruments, what playing technique?


Myrsynth-Guitar can simulate most of the instruments with pinched single-strings (no double strings) : Guitar, bass, luth, banjo, ukulele, etc, mounted with metal and/or nylon strings.

Most of the playing techniques are managed, including natural & artificial harmonics, hammering, slap, slide & bend, muted notes, etc
The whole range of flamenco "golpe" can also be played (hit on the instrument body with the thumb, fingers or palm)

Myrsynth-Guitar automatically computes the strumming direction, and can slightly arpeggiate chords. It can also put stress on rythm beat, simulate the sliding of fingers on strings, or let the string continue sounding after the end of the written note, for an even more stunning realism.

Instrument and play mode selection


In the instrument selection box ("Staves > Edit related instrument" menu option) the "MyrSynth virtual instrument" type can  be selected in the pop-up menu.
When selected, you then get two lists.

On the left, the list of available MyrSynth instruments. They are sorted by category, and by sub-category for guitars.
In real life, it would be several instruments on their stand, you can pick one to play.
The "Tuning" button under the list lets you choose another tuning for this instrument.
During playback, if some notes cannot be played (for example because out of the instrument pitch range), they will play a "golpe" (body hit) instead.

On the right, the play mode list. This will be the way this instrument is played. You can select the plectrum, decide whether you play softly or heavily, follow exactly what is written or play with more emotion, etc.
In a general way, "clean" play modes follow the written score : note duration and power, struck chords, no finger sliding noise. On the opposite, "noisy" play modes" are more humanised, but less faithful to the score


Automatic selection when importing and loading


The program can, when a score is imported or loaded, automatically select the more appropriate MyrSynth instrument, when it exists.
This can be set up through "Options > Myriad HQ > MyrSynth setup

In the list on the left "standard" instruments that can be used in the score
Tick "Display all" to see them all, otherwise you'll only see those for which the matching with MyrSynth has already been defined.

On the right, the Myrsynth instrument selector, as well as its play mode.

This match will be applied, and Myrsynth instruments will replace "standard" ones, according to the selected option at the bottom of the box:
Cette correspondance pourra ętre prise en compte, et des instruments MyrSynth sélectionnés
"Imports" are files in a foreign format (MIDI, Karaoke, Finale, MusicXML...)
"Old files" are score files that have been saved with a version of Melody/Harmony prior to the first version of MyrSynth


Special case: forced matching of the output type


In the global setup, "Load" section, output kind of all instruments of a loaded file can be forced.
In particular, the user can decide that all instruments of a loaded score will automatically play to digital output, even if they were set as using another kind of output (e.g. MIDI) by the author
What must be done, in this case, when an instrument in the loaded score uses a MyrSynth instrument?
Will it be kept as is by the program, or changed to a standard (sound base) instrument?

This depends on the settings in the MyrSynth setup box (see previous chapter). If the automatic choice for Myrsynth has been selected for any kind of file, then the MyrSynth instruments will be kept. Otherwise, they will be changed by an instrument that uses a sound base.

What's new ?



Version 1.7.6 / July-August 2023

PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.6d - August 3, 2023

Corrections

  1. Drawing of some horizontal lines
  2. Key display on virtual keyboard.


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.6c - July 19, 2023

Corrections

  1. Crash when sending some emails (especially for requesting a 64-bit license extension)
  2. MacOS: Selection color issue in editable fields.


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.6 - July 12, 2023

New features

  1. Algorithm for merging accented characters drawn in two parts.
  2. When exporting tracks, it is now possible to process voice parts specifically in order to create a separate file for each voice, highlighting the main voice. This can be achieved by either reducing the sound level of other singers (while keeping the orchestration unchanged) or by placing the main voice on the right and all other voices on the left in the stereo position.
    This feature is especially useful for choirmasters who can easily generate practice tracks for their singers.

Improvements

  1. The mode for excluding oversized images from processing has been extended to filled rectangles.
  2. Improved handling of legato.
  3. Enhanced management of rests in chords.
  4. When displaying the key signature on a system with two staves, the key signature now appears on both staves.
  5. Separate track export is now available in batch export, allowing the creation of a customized set of tracks from a list of PDF files.
  6. To avoid a series of dialog boxes, the digital export format is no longer prompted every time but can be selected via a button.
  7. Ability to define the default Unicode mode of operation: new "Fonts" tab in the preferences.


Fixes

  1. Fixed an issue with launching on Mac OS 13.4 with M1 chip.
  2. Fixed an intrusive message when manipulating the Myriad HQ palette.
  3. Fixed an issue where it was impossible to disable Virtual Singer when the score was empty.
  4. Fixed an issue where music would automatically play upon loading documents at application launch.
  5. Fixed the positioning of the export configuration dialog box, which was centered on the log window instead of the foremost document.
  6. Fixed an issue where the default path for saving or exporting was incorrect for all applications.
  7. macOS: Fixed a crash when attempting to export with no documents present


Version 1.7.5 / August-September 2022


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.5c - September 16, 2022

New

  1. New font option to give full priority to Unicode


Improvements

  1. Windows: management of hi-resolution screens in PDFtoMusic and PDFtoMusic Pro


Fixes

  1. Miscelleneous fixes in file selector
  2. Windows: app icon on desktop and in taskbar

PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.5 - August 24, 2022

New

  1. New file/folder selection box (still possible to use system boxes).
  2. New "Enable ancient notation" option (Pro version) in order, among others, to allow accidentals above the staff. Also enables to exclude rests outside the staff.
  3. Setting for seeking chord diagrams in expert mode
  4. First version of figured bass management (Pro version)

Improvements

  1. Limit in number of displayed erros on TrueType fonts
  2. Displaying glyphs not found in red is now optional
  3. Improvement in slurs tracking
  4. macOS: better management of application in background when music is playing
  5. Adjustment of palette position on startup
  6. Deactivating "Correction > Dynamics" menu option also removes crescendo/decrescendo seeking
  7. Better finding of guitar chord diagram
  8.  Management of a special case:  « Al coda » followed by the coda symbol
  9. Better response of the virtual keyboard.
  10. Improvement in recognition of chord names related to diagrams

Fixes

  1. Selection playing when several parts are selected
  2. Text editing of an annotation broke the music font
  3. Keys remaining pressed on virtual keyboard
  4.  Windows: verifying that another instance of the application is already running was made after controlling or requesting the serial number
  5. Note positionning quality evaluation: separated notes could be considered in chord, or on the opposite chords split to successive notes
  6. Removing all changes could crash
  7.  Crash in mixer
  8. Changing font processing management type could make the "Performance" menu disappear
  9. Font correction could lead to displayin an empty score
  10. Management of maximal distance between the note and its ornament
  11. Resetting calculation parameters
  12. Wrong management of some fonts (rare) could lead to an incorrect rendering on screen, thus recognition error
  13. A bit too enthusiastic recognition of crescendo/decrescendo symbols on very tilted lines
  14. Drum sets


Version 1.7.4 / December 2021

Improvements

  1. Recognition of some slur symbols
  2. Better management of slurs drawn through mirror or not
  3. Better display of recognition result for mirrored slurs

Fixes

  1. Fixed display of tie symbols in result preview
  2. Loop when playing selection range didn't work
  3. Saving of the loop state
  4. Random problem when starting playback
  5. Removal of slurs drawn on top of each other


Version 1.7.3 / August 5th, 2021

Improvements

  1. Can run in forced Ascii or Unicode mode

Fixes

  1. Fixed problem of symbols drawn as pictures on retina screens
  2. Fixed refresh problem on the keyboard palette
  3. Fixed problem with Type 1C fonts


Version 1.7.2 / January 2021


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.2d - January 25th, 2021

Improvements

  1. Following dashes over a measure edge has been improved

Fixes

  1. Digital export applied the forced tempo to the first staff only

PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.2c - January 11th, 2021

Fixes

  1. Problem of music performance
  2. Problem when playing tremolos
  3. Problem when printing : unwanted display of selection area

PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.2 - January 5th, 2021

This version provides a complete access to the Virtual Singer voices and MyrSynth instruments settings

New

  1. Complete settings for Virtual Singer voices
  2. Virtual Singer palette
  3. Virtual Singer settings are savec in MusicXML files
  4. Palette for MyrSynth instruments settings
  5. Sound base path selection
  6. New option for splitting between left and right hand

Improvements

  1. track export now manages tempo changes on all staves
  2. Management of the multiband graphic equalizer in sound output settings 
  3. Scrolling in "scroll" mode
  4. Better management of beam complex drawing

Fixes

  1. Problem on RealSinger voices rendering 
  2. Access to Gold base on Windows
  3. Keyboard palette
  4. Display of recognition results in scroll mode
  5. Possible crash when the % character was present in a word
  6. Mismatch in the contextual menu "Correction" of the batch export



Version 1.7.1  / February 2020

PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.1d - April 6th, 2020

Improvements

  1. Graphical interface libraries have been updated
  2. Interface scale selection


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.1c - February 12th, 2020

Improvements

  1. Better management of diacritics in stave names


Fixes

  1. Fixed infinite loop in recognition of some (rare) files

  2. Recognition of some Unicode characters

  3. macOS: Deactivation of Retina mode


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.1 - February 3rd, 2020


New

  1. macOs : system notification at the end of batch processing

  2. macOs : management of Retina screens. Can be disabled in global settings, "Screen" tab

  3. Magnifier mode for visually impaired ("Screen" tab)

Improvements

  1. Management of complex tempi, e.g when reference note duration is a dotted half note

  2. Corrections are now applied before the file is edited through an external software

  3. Management of lyrics line containing only one syllable

  4. Management of zero-width lines. This is very rare and has been only seen on two pictures on the thousands we own

Fixes

  1. Better management of batch processing when the application is hidden.

  2. Windows : problem to run automatically Melody/Harmony Assistant


Version 1.7.0  / June 2019 - October 2019



PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.0j - October 15th 2019


Improvements
  1. New keyboard shortcuts
  2. Recognition of dots drawn with lines is now related to "Authorise special lines"
  3. macOS: many cosmetic improvements

Fixes

  1. Performance menu items were not responding properly

PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.0i - August 8th 2019


Improvements
  1. Clicking the "drawer" (page preview on the right of the window) brings the window to front

Fixes

  1.  SVG/Myrweb export displayed some horizontal lines (e.g. beams) in white instead of black

PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.0h - July 31st 2019


Fixes
  1. Possible crash when processing file without interface (PDFtoMusic Pro in command-line mode or  PDFtoMusic launched from Harmony/Melody Assistant)


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.0g - July 18th 2019


New

  1. "Time slider" window, to quickly play from any position in the score


Fixes

  1. Fixed overflow in files containing many paths
  2. Connection with Harmony for PDF processing


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.0f - July 9th 2019


New

  1. New "correction" option to eliminate too big pictures


Fixes
  1. Font viewing on the document in font correction mode
  2. Virtual Singer didn't sing some notes well, when another notes with a 0 velocity was overlapping. This is used for creating notes that are starting point of several slurs
  3. Windows: fixed installer (in particular the application desktop shortcut icon)


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.0d - June 21st 2019


Fixes

  1. Fixed miscellaneous minor graphical problems


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.0c - June 14th 2019


Fixes

  1. Problem when saving default access paths, that could lead to a crash


PDFtoMusic / PDFtoMusic Pro 1.7.00 - June 12th 2019


New features

  1. First 64-bit version of PDFtoMusic and PDFtoMusic PRO
  2. Retina/4K option for big size display.
  3. Interface theme selector, transparency.
  4. Dark mode

Improvements

  1. Improvement in symbol recognition database
  2. Display of symbols deleted by the user has been improved
  3. Management of note dots drawn via very short lines with rounded ends.

Fixes

  1. Area selection, when click and drag was made from bottom to top and/or from right to left
  2. Deleted symbols calculation could be wrong on PDF files containing EPS (without embedded font)

Version 1.6.5 / March 7, 2018


New features

  1. Inclusion and exclusion areas ("Correction" menu)
  2. Now possible to defer document processing when applying changes ("Edit" menu)

Improvements

  1. Implemented specific processing for PDF files that have been generated from the MyrWeb print option.
  2. New icons: reprocessing, areas, e-mail
  3. Linux: application window size and position are saved between sessions

Fixes

  1. Fixed name buffer overflow in staves and system correction mode
  2. Fixed "deadlock" problem on PDF files with non-standard page size (icon placement)
  3. Fixed character size problem in type 3 fonts (drawn using pictures)
  4. Fixed side-by-side page display
  5. Windows: Fixed potential crash source at startup


Version 1.6.4 / February 1, 2018


Improvements

  1. Management of the "US-English" language variation in song lyrics
  2. Improvement of grace notes recognition
  3. Adjustments made to process some files in which note dots were removed by the dust cleaner


Fixes

  1. Selection range playback was sometimes not well managed the first time
  2. Playback position marker could show the wrong measure
  3. When entering measure list for playback, the bar shown on score wasn't always in sync with the required measur
  4. Window choice in "Windows" menu didn't work well in standard (non-pro) version
  5. Wrong items in "Windows" menu when the Kooplet search window was open
  6. Linux: fixed crash at startup
  7. Fixed time signature recognition problem, that could lead to a sudden speed up in playback
  8. Fixed inconsistency in note time positions (a note to the right could be inserted before a note to its left)
  9. Pro version: Fixed glitches in MusicXML export, especially on 8va & 8vb clef management


Version 1.6.3 / November 28, 2017


News

- MyrSynth instruments management, providing an improved sound realism for plucked string instruments when the Myriad HQ module is registered.
In Pro version, Myriad HQ is fully-functional without needing an additional license

- This version is the very first to be available for Linux

- Spanish version of the GUI

Improvements
  1. Better duplicate characters deletion in type 3 fonts
  2. Management of Unicode characters in type 3.
  3. Improvement in ambitus management
  4. Improvement in maverick tempi management 
  5. Digital output settings in batch export
  6. Improvement of selection range playback
  7. Default octave shift for Guitars and Basses
  8. OCR improvement for some text fonts
  9. Improvement of Basque language detection in lyrics

Fixes and Changes

  1. "Enable rounded lines" becomes "Enable special lines"
  2. Fixed crash when playing/exporting scores that contains very small images
  3. Fixed confusion between ledger lines and tenuto
  4. Fixed management of incomplete charset on fonts using a wrong unicode encoding


Version 1.6.2 / March 8, 2017


The main new feature is the annotation system. It enables a PDF file to be overlayed with text, graphics, boxes or arrows.
These annotations can be animated, to appear or disappear at a defined moment when music is playing.
Annotations can only be created and edited with PDFtoMusic Pro.
PDFtoMusic (non-pro) will, however, display them.

News
  1. Annotations
  2. New option in correction menu to disable grace notes processing
  3. New option in correction menu to process chord names written in complex typography
  4. If expert settings have been changed, it is shown in configuration menu
  5. Changes in general tempo now affect the miscellaneous exports (MusicXML, Myrweb, etc)
Improvements
  1. User name and address can now be specified on command line
  2. Windows: new memory management, that lets cross the 1.4GB limit
  3. Improved playback for crescendo and decrescendo symbols
  4. Improved playback of long melismas
  5. Calculation of the played bar array has been optimised. It speeds up the end of document calculation
  6. Management of part start symbols, which are now easier to identify
  7. Improvement in some instruments detection
  8. On Windows, and to a lesser extent on Mac, score drawing has been speeded up. Display and scrolling are faster 
  9. On MacOS, possible to use CoreText instead of ATSUI to display text. This can be set in global setup, "Glyphs" tab
     
Fixes and changes
  1. The PDFtoMusic Pro command line (P2MP) no longer enabled program registration
  2. Possible crash when resetting corrections and score reload
  3. "Modified" state wa slost when reloading the score automatically after a chsnge in Corrections
  4. Fixed export of some text, that could add extra rest at the end of the bar
  5. Possible crash when switching language
  6. Possible crash when opening the box for forcing played bar list
  7. Fixed barline export problems (e.g. repeat end) when the bar was split by a clef or key change


Version 1.6.1 / January 12, 2017


New
  1. Full management of GOLD II sound base instruments
  2. Possible to try instruments and human voices
  3. A progress bar show the status of batch export, and this process can be easily stopped
  4. Default processing settings can be selected directly from the interface
  5. Changed processing settings are shown in bold in the menu
  6. Menu option to quickly get back to default settings
Improvements
  1. More accurate playing position in Myrweb format
  2. Better management of key changes on staves that are not displayed on some systems
  3. Automatic picking of human voice in SATB scores
  4. New management of left/right hand in virtual keyboard. The part for each hand can be selected, and the matching color changed
  5. Direct access to help from the palettes
  6. Better following of staves across systems, based on their names
  7. Option in e-mail contact to attach the current document
  8. Better management of grace chords
Fixes and Changes
  1. File extension in automatic export
  2. MIDI channels assignation
  3. Instrument changes loading
  4. "Allow brackets to make groups" option is now saved
  5. Windows: Fixed path drawing colors (component were inverted)
  6. Fixed antialiasing errors on graphical path drawing
  7. Some grace notes could be attached to the wrong note
  8. Some grace notes could be incorrectly considered as plain notes
  9. Multiple grace notes could be processed in the reverse order
  10. New storing algorithm for amenements in the PDF file
  11. Lyrics management after measures split by a clef change

Version 1.6.0 / January 2, 2017


This major version brings several technical improvements in version PRO. For instance, viewable and playable documents can be published on the Internet in HTML format without needing any plug-in to be installed in the browser.

PDFtoMusic can also convert PDF documents to SVG format.

New features
  1. Myrweb export, enabling to publish stand-alone documents with score view and audio. (PRO only)
  2. SVG Export (PRO only)
  3. Multi-pages SVG Export (PRO only)
  4. New display layout option: pages are displayed side by side in pairs, instead of one below the other
  5. New music display while playing: Lectern mode (PRO only)
  6. New setting for ignoring corrections that have been stored within PDF files
  7. New play option: semitone transposition  (PRO only)
  8. New palette: lyrics monitoring  (PRO only)
  9. New setting for activating lectern mode or regular mode as default (PRO only)
  10. Metronome playback
  11. New correction options to ignore tempo changes or dynamics
  12. New command to jump to the page that contains a given bar, and show this bar on page.
  13. Title, Composer, Remarks are highlighted on page, and can be manually selected.
  14. New option to enable group names
Improvements
  1. Complex tempi recognition
  2. Improvement of implied tuplets processing
  3. Bar number display now manages multi-rest bars
  4. Better spotting and processing of crescendi/decrescendi.
  5. Title, Composer, Remarks now manages cover sheets. MusicXML export  of these items has been improved.
  6. Multi-style text management has been impoved, as well as stitching of text blocks.
  7. Improvement of numbered parts processing.
  8. Better staff following
  9. "N.C." chords recognition is managed
  10. Added new chord types : x2(no3) and xno3 that match xSus2
  11. Management of 4, #4, b4 in chord names.
  12. Management of bb and ## as a single character in chord names
  13. Better language recognition for Virtual Singer
  14. Management of local staves written with small notes
  15. Management of dots on small notes.
  16. Small notes are now properly exported in MusicXML.
  17. Management of partially shared lyrics
  18. Better management of composite accented characters
  19. Recent files menu now displays the whole name
  20. Recognition improvement of some fonts
  21. Management of words written from right to left

Fixes and change
  1. Fixed bar number display in scroll mode. Could occur in parts where first staff was hidden. 
  2. Fixed scroll bar problem in scroll mode
  3. GOLD base wasn't well managed
  4. Automatic break symbols management (adding repeat symbols when the number of lyrics line doesn't match what is played) was broked.
  5. Icon on desktop (Windows)
  6. Management of available tool icons in standard version and problem fix when PRO-specific icons were placed on the toolbar.
  7. Semitone shift in instrument correction was ignored for sung voices.

Version 1.5.1 / September 2015


New features and improvements
  1. New option in the "Correction" menu : computing without ledger lines
  2. New languages for Virtual Singer (*): Bulgarian, Catalan, Slavon, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Basque, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Romani, Romanian, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, Turkish et Vietnamese
  3. Improvement of voice management within staves
  4. Improvement in following parts over multiple systems
  5. Recognition of chord names partially written using a music font
  6. Improvement in finding and processing tempo changes
  7. It's now possible to change a free text to an ending symbol.
  8. Detailed information added in the calculation progress bar
  9. Improvement in finding and processing Endings, Segno, Coda etc.
  10. Clicking a part name in the mixer window shows the page at which this part begins
Fixes and changes
  1. Fixed a problem of word splitting by a dash, that made the syllable be sent to a random line
  2. MusicXML export now uses the standard language nomenclature
(*) Most of these languages are still being improved. We wish to thank the users who actively help us to adjust them.

Version 1.5.0 / December 2014


New features and improvements
  1. Better management of chord targetting, recognition and storage
  2. Measure selection in scroll mode
  3. Keyboard shortcuts to control music rendering
  4. Exported page range selection (PRO only)
  5. Signal tone at the end of document computation (several possible tones)
  6. Measure number display in scroll mode
  7. Management of measure start repeat symbol
  8. New option to loop play selection range or the whole piece
  9. When displaying the about box, search for an updated version of the application
  10. Better management for shapenotes
  11. Management of Mensurstrich systems with dotted lines
  12. MP3 export, including lyrics
  13. Ogg export
  14. Improvement of staff connection between pages
  15. Direct communication between Melody Assistant, Harmony Assistant and PDFtoMusic
  16. crossed circle symbol recognition
  17. New selection areas
  18. Better management of tuplets on rests
  19. Better management of font glyphs out of character map
  20. New option to ignore multiple rests
  21. Improvement in grouping brace fragments
  22. Better targetting of group names
  23. Possible to ignore or modify a time signature change
  24. First German version
  25. First Dutch version
  26. New manageme nt of PDF with non-embedded fonts
  27. Dynamics are better assigned to their staff
  28. Management of tuplets with incomplete brackets
  29. Clean denial of PDF files that contains large scanned pictures
  30. Finding and processing of rehearsal marks
  31. Better management of arpeggio symbols
  32. Management of staff names written vertically
  33. Recognition of circled digits (string number)
  34. Better determination of instrument related to a staff in a group (bracket or brace)
  35. Better determination of instrument on organ keyboard staves
Fixes and changes
  1. VirtualSinger voices could be silent when playing a selection range located near the end of the score
  2. Possible to change a font from "Music font" to "Text with optical recognition"
  3. Possible to force a font to "Music font"
  4. Fixed possible confusion between bar numbers and time signature with unknown bottom number
  5. Fixed possible confusion between bar numbers and lyrics
  6. Fixed key signature change misplacement when empty bars are present
  7. Fixed lyrics export in .kar
  8. Fixed management of cautionary key signature
  9. Fixed confusion between Capo (capodastro - guitar clip) indicator and "Da Capo"
  10. Fixed MusicXML saving problem in case of multiple brackets and braces
  11. Fixed MusicXML export of imposed measure array
  12. Fixed user break
  13. Fixed singer language display
  14. Fixed management of tremolo on stem
  15. Fixed management of broken slurs
  16. Fixed path assembly module
  17. Fixed preference file conflict between pro and standard version
  18. Fixed "Save As" when saving under the original name
  19. Some special characters in the embedded font names could trouble the MusicXML export
  20. Windows: The document icon in the upper left corner of the window could disappear

Version 1.4.2 / October 2013


News and Improvements
  1. In scroll mode, position in the score and automatic scrolling have been implemented
  2. Tremolo recognition on single notes
  3. Improvement of scores made of a single-line drum staves

Fixes and Changes

  1. Slurs on two notes not consecutive of same pitch could be incorrectly considered as ties.
  2. Fixed some elementary drawings
  3. WIndows Vista/7/8: Possible crash when sending an e-mail from the program

Version 1.4.2c (October 14th 2013 )


Improvements
  1. Document writing at the end of the recognition process has been speeded up

Fixes
  1. Fixed glyph management
  2. Fixed editing of staff following
  3. Some options of the File menu like "Open PDF file w/ editor" remained active even when no document was loaded. This could lead to a crash
  4. Fixed possible crash when resizing document window
  5. Fixed dynamics position calculation
  6. Source files have been processed by a code analyzer. Some minor non-conformities have been found and fixed.


Version 1.4.1 / July 2013


News and Improvements
  1. PDF files can be printed directly from the program
  2. PDF files can be opened with an external editor
  3. Better versionning of the OCR database, enabling to update more easily this base alone
  4. Dutch version of the GUI

Fixes and Changes

  1. Select an object behind an icon
  2. Beam detection
  3. Time signature detection
  4. Fixed crash when playing after getting a file from a Kooplet text search
  5. Processing of staff lines drawn with characters has been reactivated
  6. Windows: crash when processing a file that has % characters in its name

Version 1.4.0 / April 2013


This version brings an enhanced stability, a better symbol recognition, new computing options as well as some user interface improvements. In particular, it's now possible to group objects together and apply changes to all of them at once.
Two new floating tools are included : mixer and virtual keyboard.
The played measure list can now be forced.

News and Improvements
  1. New floating window: Mixer
  2. New floating window: Virtual Keyboard
  3. Quick opening of the current document in the score editor of your choice.
  4. Page change on Pg Up & Pg Down keyboard keys
  5. Specific processing of thin beams ("Correction" menu)
  6. Specific processing of note stems drawn using curves ("Correction" menu)
  7. Better management of slurs across end of line
  8. Lyrics language displayed through a small flag
  9. Improvement of language automatic recognition
  10. Improvement in text spacing recognition
  11. Optional display of file complete path in the window title
  12. New setting for playing the score automatically after processing
  13. Independant key signature change on staves
  14. Corrections are applied to all selected objects of the same type
  15. Now possible to select objects through discontinuous selection, exclusion of a selection area, selection of one or several staves
  16. Edit menu: delete changes on selected objects
  17. Edit menu: select all, deselect all
  18. Improvement of Da Capo management and better export
  19. Management of 7-shapes Fasola notation
  20. Improvement in shape note recognition
  21. Improvement of title, composer and remarks recognition
  22. Improvement in speed for module: staff following from one system to the next
  23. Improvement in speed for module: music symbols optical recognition
  24. Improvement in ottava symbols processing
  25. Management of fontless documents like the PDF files generated by iWriteMusic
  26. Better processing of information written outside the staff area
  27. Virtual Singer voices (SATB) are better determined and set 
  28. Better processing of staff group name
  29. A new options enables to display measure numbers and to spot measures that are never played (it's generally due to a mistake in break symbols)
  30. Now possible to force the list of measures to play
  31. When compressed MusicXML format (.mxl) is used, pictures of the document are now managed in a standard way, and therefore imported by programs that can process such embedded pictures (PDFtoMusic Pro only)
  32. Miscellaneous PDF-specific graphic settings are now calculated: stem line width, staff line width, grace note size, etc. These settings are exported in MusicXML (PDFtoMusic Pro only)
  33. Shape-note notation management module has been completely rewritten
  34. Better management of incomplete measures (anacrusis, upbeats) before or after repeat start and end barlines.
  35. Management of staves with different time signatures
  36. Management of implied tuplets through rhythmic pattern recognition
  37. Improvement of chord diagrams recognition
  38. Improvement of lyrics and note association
  39. New algorithm for grace note tracking and processing
  40. Better management of double-sharp symbols
  41. Recognition of a new ornament : staccatissimo.
  42. Improvement of C (Tenor) clef spotting
  43. Improvement of distinction between key signature and note accidentals. 
  44. Management of dotted notes with double stem
  45. Better processing of stemless notes
  46. Better spotting of dotted barlines
  47. Management of tempo mark made of several words
  48. Better management of arpeggio symbols
  49. Better recognition of lyrics language
  50. In global setup, default corrections that will be applied when a PDF file is loaded can be selected
  51. Better management of numbered parts (endings) at the beginning of a line
  52. On documents with several lyric lines, when break symbols are missing or wrong, break symbols can be automatically created to match the number of repeats.
  53. New option in the export to create a separate file by part (PDFtoMusic Pro only)
Fixes and Changes
  1. Relation between file types and opening application
  2. Management of TrueType CID type 2 Fonts
  3. Fixed crash on corrupted bitmap pictures
  4. Fixed crash when a long line of text is considered as the lyrics syllable related to a note
  5. Fixed icon positions when settings are reset to default values
  6. Chord line management when conflicting with bar numbers
  7. Fixed problem when saving instruments
  8. Online search for free PDF score files using Kooplet has been improved, and the quantity of indexed files drastically increased.
  9. Some combinations of break symbols and numbered parts (endings) could result in an infinite play.
  10. Fixed a problem in shared lyrics recognition.


Version 1.3.1 / May 2012


Improvements
  1. Better beam handling
  2. PDF files are now managed up to version 1.7
  3. Better ledger lines management
  4. Management of copy/paste protected PDF files
  5. New version auto detect
  6. Better broken slurs management
  7. Better 8va and 8vb management
Fixes
  1. Recent files menu
  2. User's toolbar
  3. Mensurstrich notation
  4. Dynamics vertical position on one line staves


Version 1.3.1d (May 15, 2012 )


Improvements
  1. Title, Composer, Remarks are extracted from the PDF and exported
Fixes
  1. Better management of repeat start/end recognized as piece start/end


Version 1.3.1c (April 19, 2012 )


Fixes
  1. Possible crash when playing a score that contains lyrics written in an unknown language
  2. Windows: Fixed problem in the memory management library of the PDFtoMusic non-pro version, that could prevent processing of long scores


Version 1.3.0 / March 2011


New
  1. The Kooplet music search engine is included, to search the Internet for PDF scores
  2. Possible to deactivate the chord name search ("Correction" menu)
Improvements
  1. Position of the play bar in multi-rest bars
Fixes
  1. Rest display
  2. Marcato Staccato ornament display
  3. Tuplet rests in MusicXML export
  4. Rests that fill a bar in MusicXML export
  5. Rests vertical position

Version 1.3.0c (March 17, 2011 )


  1. Repeat barlines between clef and time signature weren't processed.
  2. Fixed toolbar update problem when setting up the icons to display
  3. Fixed crash on some files, Windows version

Version 1.3.0d (March 24, 2011 )


  1. Better management of slurs/ties drawn astride a line break
  2. Some chords were incorrectly played arpeggiated

Version 1.2.1 / April-May 2010


New
  1. Management of forced bar numbers
  2. Management of incomplete time signatures
  3. PDFtoMusic Pro: Command-line access (without GUI)
  4. PDFtoMusic Pro: Batch processing: Messages can be saved in a log file
  5. PDFtoMusic Pro: Expert mode: Maximum grace note size setting
Improvements
  1. General improvement of musical or alphabetical characters
  2. Better management of double barlines
  3. Improvement of numbered endings management
Fixes
  1. Page number in the drawer
  2. Dots localisation problem
  3. On some files, accidentals and grace notes recognition
  4. MusicXML export: "<" character in lyrics
  5. Space character management


Version 1.2.1c and 1.2.1d ( May 4th - 6th 2010 )


  1. Improvement of music export (any format)
  2. Improvement in the way melismas are performed by Virtual Singer
  3. Improvement of the arpeggio symbol management
  4. PDFtoMusic Pro: MusicXML export: stem sizes of secondary staves of a group (e.g. piano bass staff) weren't properly saved
  5. Windows: Packed MusicXML (.mxl) didn't work
  6. Windows Vista/7: once the program was installed, the system displayed an alert box saying that the install might not be completed properly
  7. Windows Vista/7: The appearance of dialog boxes could not be as expected

Version 1.2 / April 2009


New
  1. The toolbar can now be customized
  2. A folder of sample PDF files is now provided
  3. It is now possible to exclude break symbols (segno, coda...) from the processing

Improvements
  1. Better export of grace notes (appoggiaturas) in MusicXML.
  2. Better recognition and export of tremolos.
  3. Better management of repeat start and end symbols
  4. Better management of drum staves, especially on documents that only include such staves.
  5. .myr export now manages metronome
  6. Verse number in lyrics are now better managed.
  7. Better recognition for half notes
  8. Crossed grace notes are now located and exported
  9. Better management of whole bar rests
  10. All actions available from menus can be activated through an icon, and vice versa

Corrections
  1. Fixed performance of some kind of drum staves
  2. Fixed a small problem of file compatibility between PDFtoMusic and Melody Player
  3. Fixed problem in beam recognition
  4. Crash on embedded Adobe Type 1 fonts with composite diacritics.

Version 1.1 / September 8, 2008


New
  1. Packed MusicXML format (.mxl) is now managed
  2. Correction Menu : item to allow bracket to create groups
  3. Correction Menu : item to ignore the clefs vertical offset
  4. Management of implied tuplets
  5. Now possible to export in MusicXML 2.0 format (global setup)
Improvements
  1. Better management of drum staves
  2. Opening a PDF file from the desktop doesn't load the last documents
  3. Shift + mousewheel changes display scale
Fixes
  1. Confusion between tuplets and part start
  2. Chord diagrams management
  3. Confusion on drum staves
  4. Memory crash when deleting a change made to the document

Version 1.0.4 / April 24th, 2007


New
  1. A correction can now be applied to a group of symbols.
    Right-click to define a selection area. Symbols in this area appear as selected. Right-click on any symbol in this selection area and select a correction to apply: it will be applied to all the symbols of the same kind in the selection area.
Improvements
  1. Better memory management for page graphic cache. Enables to manage bigger PDF files.
Fixes
  1. Seeking of the staff related to chord diagrams


Version 1.0.3 / April 3rd, 2007


Improvements
  1. Optimization of processing time
  2. Better management for chord name written on shifted lines.
  3. Better management of grace notes
  4. Accented characters made of two parts
  5. Recognition of guitar chord diagrams drawn with an emty grid character and a set of dots
  6. Recognition of some key changes
  7. Parenthesis around an accidental or a notehead, when drawn with a text font
  8. Font OCR database updated.
  9. Macintosh: Multi-screen management
Fixes
  1. Recognition and export of the Aiken FaSoLa notation
  2. Management of Adobe Type 1 fonts
  3. Applying a change on a document with a guitar chord diagram
  4. Recognition of horizontal beams, when overlapping a staff line
  5. Problem when a chord name was "Re"
  6. PDFtoMusic Pro: empty pictures are no more exported in MusicXML
  7. MacTel: keyboard management

Version 1.0.2 / February 21st, 2007


Improvements
  1. Possible to change note duration AND add or subtract a dot.
  2. Crossed grace notes management
  3. New keyboard shortcuts for display scale, 200% scale
  4. Dynamics merging ensure that the result is logical, for instance to avoid merging "mf" and "sfz"
  5. New full screen and drawer management
  6. Font OCR database updated.
  7. PDFtoMusic Pro: New setting for the expert mode: maximum beam thickness.
Fixes
  1. Tenuti recognition
  2. Ties within slurs
  3. Breve rest recognition
  4. Tempi display, edit and export
  5. Beamed notes with double stems
  6. Stem direction in chords
  7. Framed text could interfere with part numbers

Version 1.0.1 /  February 8th, 2007


Improvements
  1. When defining a new kind of tuplet, it's added to the tuplet value list.
  2. .myr files are now packed.
  3. "How to create PDF files with Mac OS 9" chapter added to the manual.
  4. "How to create PDF files with Linux" chapter added to the manual.
  5. Improvement in bar number seeking.
  6. Time signature detection has been improved.
  7. Improvement of paragraph recognition for free text objects.
  8. Font OCR database updated.
  9. .myr export: default instruments for the metronome are automatically created.
  10. PDFtoMusic Pro: After changing expert mode settings, possible to compute all the open documents again.
  11. PDFtoMusic Pro: In batch export, it's now possible to define the amendments to computation settings that will be applied to each and every processed file.
  12. PDFtoMusic Pro: When editing expert settings, when at least one item has been changed from the reference value, the matching topic name is highlighted in the list, and the offset from the current value to the reference is also displayed.

Fixes
  1. Miscellaneous problems in general settings.
  2. Problem that could occur when trying to edit or play a non-vector document (scanned page or not a music score)
  3. Infinite loop when selecting a user tuplet
  4. Exported page selection in other formats than MusicXML
  5. Double barlines at end of bar could be not well recognized.
  6. File kind detection according to its extension when exporting
  7. Chord names and text related to the staff could be not exported in .myr format
  8. Output device related to the instrument when exporting in .myr format
  9. Alert about bar numbering when applying correction on systems
  10. Windows: files with accented characters in their name are now properly managed.
  11. Windows : default value of the selector when selecting a folder.
  12. PDFtoMusic Pro: dynamic size when exporting in MusicXML format
  13. PDFtoMusic Pro: "slash notation" export in MusicXML format

Version 1.0.0 / February 1st, 2007


Very first public version.

Limits




Non processed elements

- Different time signature at the same time position

Unregistered version

The unregistered version of PDFtoMusic will only play the first page of a document, and can export only one page at a time.

Explanatory text appears on each exported page processed with the demo version.

Frequently Asked Questions


Here are some frequently asked questions, along with their answers:

-> PDFtoMusic displays a score but says that the document doesn't include any exploitable music data. Why?
Some PDF files embed only a single picture for the whole score, instead of  a collection of simple graphic objects. This kind of PDF file has probably been generated from a scanned paper sheet. PDFtoMusic can't extract and process elementary graphical items in such cases, and reports that such a document cannot be processed.

-> How to know whether a PDF file can be processed by PDFtoMusic?
The simplest way is to ask PDFtoMusic to load it. It will then tell you.
Otherwise, open it with Acrobat Reader (or equivalent) and do "Select All". If the PDF file contains exploitable data, the selection range will be fragmented. If the PDF file contains only a scanned picture that can't be processed either the selection range will be empty, or the whole score will be selected as a single block.

-> Why are certain characters specific to a language not recognized?
You must verify that the unicode information is correct.
Open the PDF with Adobe Acrobat Reader or equivalent.
Select the relevant text, copy.
Paste in a text editor.
If the characters are incorrects, the unicode data in this PDF file is not valid.

-> A password is asked when I load or export the PDF, why ?
The author of the PDF file had protected his work, contact him to got the password.







File/Folder selector


Through the selector you can browse your storage space and select files to be loaded or saved.
It helps you organising your documents better, thus keeping them safer.
Files are documents you can open, modify and save.
At the end of their name, a few characters provide their type. They are called the extension
Files are stored in folders.
A folder can contain other folders, and so on. This builds a tree.
At any time you are viewing a precise position in the tree: it's the current path.

The selector contains three major areas as well as some smaller, additional ones
From left to right we have:

Can also be found:


Area: shortcut list

From the shortcut list you quickly access special locations in your storage space
It is displayed as a name or icon list.
Display settings can be changed from the upper button.
You can move in the list through the scroll bar and change its size with the handle.

It is divided in four sections, each section can be opened or closed.


Area: files and folders list

This is the most important section: it shows the file and folder that are present in the current path
They can be displayed as icons or list. This can be selected from the upper button. Items can be sorted by date, size, name, etc. in ascending or descending order.
Clicking an item selects int and displays its preview in a dedicated area.
Clicking a column title changes the sorting , a second click changes the sorting order.
A long click on a column title enables to move the column.

By right-clicking an item, you can :

Here is a list of usable keyboard keys:
Note : Cmd means the "Command" key on macOS and the Ctrl key on Windows and Linux
Esc Cancel the selection and close the selector
Enter/Return in search mode
Start search
Enter/Return Validate the selection and close the selector
Cmd +
Increase element size
Cmd - Decrease element size
Cmd 0 Back to factory settings
Cmd up arrow
Up one level in tree
Cmd A 
Select all
Cmd T Sort by title
Cmd D Sort by date
Cmd P
Sort by path (search results)
Cmd H
Sort by information
Cmd K
Sort by type
Cmd S
Sort by size
Cmd I
Invert sorting order
Cmd M
Toggle display mode
Cmd N
New folder
Cmd P
Detailed view
Cmd left arrow
Move to start
Cmd right arrow
Move to end
Cmd backspace Move item to trash bin
Up or left arrow
Move to previous item
down or right arrow
Move to next item
Enter
Enter the folder
S Run slideshow
0,1,2,3 etc Change screen
Spacebar (on a PDF)
Next page (macOS only)
Spacebar (on a  .myr)
Start/stop music
Note : On macOS you can change the current path by dragging & dropping a folder to the selector

Area: preview

It shows a preview of the select file or folder in the list in the center.
Area size can be changed with a handle.
Some kind of files are displayed in a special way:
In Harmony/Melody Assistant, music foles are viewed and played
On macOS PDF files can be viewed, even if they contain multiple pages

Area: current path display

Le chemin courant s’affiche de maničre détaillée. Un click sur un niveau de l’arborescence se positionne ŕ se niveau. Les différents sous-dossiers sont également accessibles via le menu contextuel.
Un click long puis déplacement sur les favoris ajoute ce chemin aux favoris.


Area: search

Made of a small magnifying glass and a text field. Enter the text to seach for in file names then click the magnifier to start the search.
Note: on macOS you can chose whether you want to serach using SpotLight or not. With SpotLight, search is made throughout all your disks, the standard search only processes the current path.


Area: up one level

Goes up one level in the tree


Area: history

When you change the current path, it is memorised. From the history, you can go back.
N.B.: This is different from going up one level


Area: name input

When saving a file you will enter its name here.

Area: filters


Only files whose extension matches the filter can be selected

Mode: detailed view


It shows a full-screen preview of the file or folder currently selected in the list in the middle
Click the preview to move it, right-click to zoom in on the area.

Here is the list of usable keyboard shortcuts:


Esc Exit this mode
Cmd +
Increase scale
Cmd - Decrease scale
Cmd 0 Back to scale one and recenter
Cmd up arrow
Up one level in tree
Cmd T Sort by title
Cmd D Sort by date
Cmd P
Sort by path (search results)
Cmd H
Sort by information
Cmd K
Sort by type
Cmd S
Sort by size
Cmd I
Invert sorting order
Cmd left arrow
Move to start
Cmd right arrow
Move to end
Cmd backspace Move item to trash bin
Up or left arrow
Move to previous item
down or right arrow
Move to next item
Enter
Enter the folder
S Run slideshow
0,1,2,3 etc Change screen
Spacebar (on a PDF)
Next page (macOS only)
Spacebar (on a  .myr)
Start/stop music

MODE: SELECT FILE FOR LOADING


You are going to select the file(s) to be loaded. Only the files that match the filter can be selected. You can change the filter by clicking the filter contextual menu area.

MODE: SELECT FILE FOR SAVING


You are going to select a current path and a file name

MODE: SELECT FOLDER


Only folders are displayed in this mode. You can define a complete path that will be used by the program

Appendices


File formats
Your user folder
Keyboard shortcuts
Useful links

File formats

PDFtoMusic manages several file formats. Here is an overview of each of them.

Adobe PDF format (.pdf)


This format has been designed by Adobe, PDF standing for "Portable Document Format". It eases the exchange and distribution of any document. It can store any kind of graphical objects, from text to pictures.
It's the groundwork of PDFtoMusic.

PDFtoMusic reads and processes this kind of document, as long as its data contain vector graphics.

MusicXML format (.xml)


Designed by Recordare, this format is about to become the exchange file format for music scores. Based on XML, a text descriptive format, it is now managed by an increasing number of music programs.
In order to open PDFtoMusic to as many people as possible, it has been naturally chosen as the groundwork format for the Pro version of PDFtoMusic.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

MusicXML compressed format (.mxl)


It is a packed version of the MusicXML format. In fact, this kind of file can be obtained by compressing a MusicXML file as a Zip, then renaming the result file from .zip to .mxl
In the same way, the original MusicXML file can be extracted from the .mxl by renaming it to .zip then unpacking it with any utility that supports this format (for instance, the original unzip program)
.
Because MusicXML is a descriptive text of the score, these files can be quite large. In order to save bandwidth, either when such files are sent by e-mail or put on a Website, using a .mxl can be useful.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

Myr format (.myr)


It's a Myriad proprietary format, managed by Melody Assistant and Harmony Assistant.
Music-related information is stored as musical objects.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

MyrWeb format (.myrweb.html)


With this format, anybody can view and hear your score, without having to install anything on their computer or tablet beforehand.

A MyrWeb file can be sent by e-mail, or included directly in a Website without needing any special technical skill.

The dead simple score sharing format par excellence.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

Mid format (.mid)


This format, based on the MIDI exchange standard between electronic music devices (keyboards, synthesizers, expanders, etc) contains a description of the notes that constitute the music pieces, as well as basic information about the score. However, details about the piece graphical appearance, its page layout, note appearance or ornaments are not stored. Albeit very incomplete, and until the use of MusicXML broadens, it remains the standard exchange format for almost all music programs.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

Kar format (.kar)


It's actually a mid format, to which additional commands have been added in order to store lyrics related to a staff. Originally, this format was designed to store Karaoke scores (hence its name).

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

You can use Melody Player to view and listen to list of files of this kind.

Wav format (.wav)


It's a binary audio format. It contains stereo digital audio data. This format is lossless, which means that it can be loaded, changed and saved as many times as needed, without any loss in quality (contrary to MP3 or OGG, for instance).

Initially designed for PC,
it is now managed by almost any sound editor or player, or CD burning software.
When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality will be obtained when using the GOLD base.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

AIFF format (.aiff)


It's a binary audio format. It contains stereo digital audio data. This format is lossless, which means that it can be loaded, changed and saved as many times as needed, without any loss in quality (contrary to MP3 or OGG, for instance).

Initially designed for Macintosh,
it is now managed by almost any sound editor or player, or CD burning software.
When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality will be obtained when using the GOLD base.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

Mpeg format (.mp3)


It's a binary audio format that contains stereo digital audio data. This format is compressed lossless, which means that it is shorter than an uncompressed format (wav,aiff) but can suffer from a slight loss of quality.

When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality will be obtained when using the GOLD base.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

Vorbis Ogg format (.ogg)


It's a binary audio format that contains stereo digital audio data. This format is compressed lossless, which means that it is shorter than an uncompressed format (wav,aiff) but can suffer from a slight loss of quality.

When PDFtoMusic generates this kind of file, it uses the digital sound database that has been installed on your computer. A better quality will be obtained when using the GOLD base.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

BMP format (.bmp)


It's a binary picture format. Data is not stored as graphical object, but as pixels.
It is managed by almost all the graphic editors.

PDFtoMusic writes this kind of document.

Svg format (.svg)


It's a vector image format. It contains graphical objects in scalable form, enabling to zoom infinitely without loss of precision. These files can be included very easily in Web pages, or be viewed in a Web browser.

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

Multi-page svg format (.svg)


It's an SVG export of all the score pages at once, side by side. Mainly designed to be displayed in a Web page, this format will let Webmasters easily display a mullti-page score in a web page area (div)

PDFtoMusic Pro writes this kind of document.

This format is not managed by PDFtoMusic, in its "non Pro" version.

Structure of your user folder

The user folder contains files that have been created by PDFtoMusic. It is highly recommended to perform backup copies of this folder at regular intervals.

This folder is located in your user document folder, in the "Myriad Documents/PDFtoMusic" subfolder.

The subfolders are:

"Correction" : If you asked for the corrections not to be stored in the PDF document itself, the changes you applied to the documents will be stored here. There will be one correction file for each edited PDF.

"Export": When the result from an imported PDF file is automatically exported, it is stored by default in this folder. You can change this location from the general preferences, "Export" section.

"OCRCorrection": When you amend the result of the character optical recognition, databases are created in this subfolder

Keyboard shortcuts

Beyond keyboard shortcuts for menu options, some keyboard keys trigger actions:

Spacebar: starts and stops music playback
Down arrow: switches to next page
Up arrow: switches to previous page
Esc: cancels processing of the current file

Useful links

Here is a list of Web sites where you can download music PDF files:

http://dirk.meineke.free.fr
http://icking-music-archive.org
http://www.cpdl.org
http:// www.solovoces.com
http:// www.sheetmusicnotes.com
http:// www.score-on-line.com
http:// www.oldmusicproject.com
http:// www.free-scores.org
http:// www.eythorsson.com
http:// www.guitarpixel.com
http:// www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~ef/music/
http:// www.mutopiaproject.org
http:// www.jazzbank.com
http:// www.evatoller.pp.se
http:// www.kantoreiarchiv.de

Problem report



If you encounter specific issues that you can't solve, of if you need something precise that can't be fulfilled by PDFtoMusic, you can contact us, we'll do our best to help you.

Before all:

Ensure that you actually own the most recent version of the program (see our website).
If not, download the new version then check whether your problem still occurs.


How to contact us?


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Software license

Non-profit distribution ofthe unregistered version of PDFtoMusic is permitted without prior written notice, provided that the software is not modified in any way, and is distributed in its entirety (this includes the application, data files, and all accompanying documentation).
For-profit distribution of the above software requires a prior written agreement from the authors, by post, fax or e-mail.

Complete or registered version

By purchasing a complete version of PDFtoMusic, the user accepts the present software license.
The complete version of PDFtoMusic is assigned to its owner, becoming personal and confidential as soon as the personal code that have been sent to the user after their purchase has been entered in the software. Neither the registered copy of the software, nor the personal registration number can be distributed in any form.

This license is not limited in time, and remains valid for all new versions of the same product.

It is valid for one user only. If you need to share a registered version of PDFtoMusic among several users, please contact us to get a site license.

The user is fully responsible for the non-distribution of his personal registration number and his registered copy of the software.


Disclaimer

In no event will Myriad, its officers, directors, employees or agents be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from possession, use, or malfunction of one of their products.
Neither exchange, nor partial or total refund can be claimed for these products after the user has received and read his personal registration code.
Myriad reserves the right to invalidate and to disable at any time the personal registration code of a user following the illegal distribution of his code or a default in the complete payment of his software license fee.
In no event will Myriad be liable for any direct or indirect consequence of the invalidation and disabling of a personal registration code following a default in payment or an illegal distribution of the personal code.



Myriad Software, the Myriad Software logo, MyrScript, Harmony Assistant, Virtual Singer are trademarks of Myriad Software.
Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Adobe, Adobe Illustator and Adobe Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Order


The application general menu*, "order" sub-menu, will connect you to our store, from where you can order a PDFtoMusic licence.

Please consider that the playback quality of PDFtoMusic, as well as the audio file export (WAV, AIFF, MP3) can be drastically improved by using GOLD 2 sound base.

* Called "?" on Windows, "PDFtoMusic" on Macintosh


We wish to thank all people who helped us, since May 2006, by their advices and extensive tests.

MM Aarden, Aguila, Bautista, Belkin, Butin, Faivre, Gershwinou, Good, Groromrom, Herman, Hinchey, Houllemare, De Kloe, Lagarde, LeBow, Le Calonnec, Legall, Lemaire, Machefert, Nappert, Nicou, Oliveira, Puff, Rouquie.

A special thank to Franck Aguila for having designed and drawn the application graphics.


Virtual Singer

New languages sung by Virtual Singer are the result of the collaboration with several voluntary users.

Most of these languages are based on the work of Sylvain Machefert for the Harmony Assistant's "Other languages" script.

Basque : We are looking for people who could help us
Bulgarian : Alexander Sadovski
Catalan : Gil Rossell Duchamps
Slavonic : Sylvain Machefert (We are looking for people who could help us)
Czech : Václav Müller
Dutch : Roeland Bekker
Esperanto : Sylvain Machefert
Greek : Vassili Louziotis , Sylvain Machefert
Hebrew :  Michel Levy, Mitchell Martin, Sylvain Machefert
Hungarian : Sylvain Machefert, Macher Tivadar, Mikó Zoltán, Paál Balázs, Peter Velosy, Szabó Norbert
Macedonian : Sylvain Machefert (We are looking for people who could help us)
Portuguese : J F Duran, Antonio Ferreira, Francisco Guerra, Sylvain Machefert, Carlos Pires, A Paulo O Soares, Hallstein Sřrĺs
Romani : Sylvain Machefert (We are looking for people who could help us)
Romanian :  Sylvain Machefert, Terolaviu Popescu
Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian: Sylvain Machefert (We are looking for people who could help us)
Turkish : Omer Aslan, Éngin, Aykut Kılıç, Sylvain Machefert, Aydin Yulug,
Vietnamese : Van Binh Luong